Jumbuck is an Australian word for a 'sheep'. It refers to an English person, especially a migrant, who is regarded as a habitual complainer. The phrase originally implied the notion that people from the country are easily fooled by the more sophisticated city slickers. To give support or encouragement to (a person, team, etc. 2009 J. Castrission Crossing the Ditch: He was looking slimmer and fitter than ever before. 'Condolence motion to the oysters', barked Rudd. Nowhere near - 'The clubâs not within a bullâs roar of winning the premiership this season.' Usually this activity is surreptitious. A short, squat beer bottle, especially one with a capacity of 375 ml. A person typically looks like a stunned mullet as the result of a sudden shock or surprise. Some claim barrack comes from Australian pidgin to poke borak at 'to deride', but its origin is probably from Northern Irish barrack 'to brag; to be boastful'. The Australian idiom emerged in the early 20th century and is still heard today. Soldiers may have pronounced this as van blonk, further transforming it into plonk. Irish English has larry 'fool' from Irish learaire 'lounger, loafer', but there is no clear link to the phrase. 1971 J. O'Grady Aussie Etiket: 'You would be the greatest bloody galah this side of the rabbit-proof fence'. First recorded in the 1920s and still going strong today. The bottle is stubby (short and thick) in comparison with the tall and slender 750 ml beer bottle. It is alleged that 'drop bears' are a dangerous kind of koala and that they drop out of trees on the heads and shoulders of bush walkers and hug them to death. This term also takes the form captain's call. To get a raw deal, or to receive unfair or inequitable treatment. The force of the phrase derives partly from the fact that either end of a pineapple is âroughâ, although the end with the prickly leaves is very rough indeed. 2013 S. Thorne Bonzer: I would have loved her to put in a day now and then at the new tuckshop⦠But she wouldn't, because she thought the woman who ran it was a âprawnâ. Thus bludger came to mean 'one who lives on the earnings of a prostitute'. Bilby is first recorded in the 1870s.Â. Flory was much puzzled till she found out that a 'bogey', in colonial phraseology, meant a bath. As elsewhere, in Australia feral describes a domesticated animal that has gone wild. By 1812 public servant was used to refer to any government worker, whether free or convict, and two centuries later it is still the standard Australian term for a public service employee. For a more detailed discussion of dak see our Word of the Month article from July 2009. Later it also came to mean âstaunchly conservativeâ in a political sense. Guernsey is the second largest of the Channel Islands. Banana bender, in reference to a Queenslander, is first recorded in 1940 and is till commonly heard. This term is recorded from the late 19th century. Pages (550 words) Approximate price: $ 22. This image (an Australian stereotype) is epitomised in the following 1899 quotation for bluey: There's the everlasting swaggie with his bluey on his back who is striking out for sunset on the Never-never track. It is also used as a verb. A fool, a simpleton, an idiot. D. Niland writes in The Shiralee (1955): 'Put the nips into me for tea and sugar and tobacco in his usual style. Look, I try not to do it all the time, honest! The term is a specific use of branch meaning 'a local division of a political party'. The first record of Oz meaning âAustraliaâ appears not long after this in 1944, in the context of a wartime troop newsletter: 1944 Barging About: Organ of the 43rd Australian Landing Craft Co. 1 September: All the tribes of Oz did gather together. In 1902 the Truth newspaper reports: 'The sunburnt residents of at that God-forsaken outpost of civilisation were subsisting on stewed galah and curried crow'. It describes the person with few natural advantages, who works doggedly and with little reward, who struggles for a livelihood (and who displays courage in so doing). Recently, we have gathered evidence for the term muttonbird koories, a reference to the importance of muttonbirding to their traditional way of life, especially on the islands off the Tasmanian coast. He's a pretty crook singer, but he'll sing for you. Wrought means âworked into shape or conditionâ and we see it today in the term wrought iron. But sometimes you might want to learn a new and unfamiliar word – one which you probably won’t need in everyday … For tutoring please call 856.777.0840 I am a recently retired registered nurse who helps nursing students pass their NCLEX. A simple kind of bread, traditionally unleavened and baked in the ashes of an outdoor fire. 2013 Herald Sun (Melbourne) 8 March: The key here is what the money is spent on, with infrastructure projects holding out the prospect of being a magic pudding that can create jobs, increase productivity and improve state government revenue. 'Well, life wasnât meant to be easy!' And we need to turn to the world of Australian television. First recorded in the 1960s. King-hit is also used as a verb. A much finer unit of measurement is expressed by the similar Australian phrase within a beeâs dick. Ultimately all these senses of dag are probably derived from the British dialect (especially in children's speech) sense of dag meaning a 'feat of skill', 'a daring feat among boys', and the phrase to have a dag at meaning 'to have a shot at'. butter, 2 eggs, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, 1 cup flour, 1 cup rice flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon mixed spice. It was published in the London Spectator in 1908, and then widely in Australian newspapers. For a further discussion of the origin of rort, see our Word of the Month article. This sense is first recorded in the Bulletin in 1898: 'I found patch after patch destroyed. An invitation to bring a plate of food to share at a social gathering or fundraiser. Translation of Nadsat language in A Clockwork Orange book movie, Alex DeLarge, Ludwig Van Beethoven's 9th Symphoney With coffee, colour one half a pale yellow, and the other half a deep brown. A person who is conspicuously successful, especially one who attracts envious notice or hostility. Later, a jackeroo was 'a young man (frequently English and of independent means) seeking to gain experience by working in a supernumerary capacity on a sheep or cattle station'. Word of the Month article from December 2013, 'There's a Bunyip Close behind us and he's Treading on my Tail'. In the 21st century the term has been used in various political contests as this quotation in the Australian from 1 July 2006 demonstrates: 'The Prime Minister, who has built his success on an appeal to Australia's battlers, is about to meet thousands more of them in his northern Sydney seat of Bennelong'. at a mark' (often used to describe throwing and hitting in games of marbles). George Shaw in his Zoology of New Holland refers to: the vast Island or rather Continent of Australia, Australasia, or New Holland, which has so lately attracted... particular attention. 2002 Age (Melbourne) 16 July: Campbell, 25, did not grow up as a bogan chick. 1985 Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July: Cedric Felspar .. was lost in thought in .. David Jones .. when a salesgirl crept upon him from behind and whined: âYou right?â. These 'wild bush horses' have been known as brumbies in Australia since the early 1870s. An Australian soldier. Coolibah is first recorded in the 1870s. 1979 Carey & Lette Puberty Blues: It was Darren Petersâthe top surfing spunk of sixth form. 1869 W.M.  Plonk is likely to be an altered form of the French word âblancâ in vin blanc, âwhite wineâ. Ambo was first recorded in the 1980s. It is often found in the phrases to chuck a uey or to do a uey, meaning âto carry out a U-turnâ. It was just after the end of World War II and rationing had caused a flourishing black market in American-made cloth. 2001 B. Courtenay Four Fires: So the Owens Valley CFA weren't always happy little Vegemites. This sense is first recorded in 1896 in a Henry Lawson story. 1980 M. McAdoo If Only Iâd Listened: âEâd be about six foot easy tall, broad, anâ a sort of brownish fur lookinâ stuff all over âim, anâ standing up like a man⦠We didnât know what the name of it was then, but .. a lot of peopleâve been seeinâ them around the eastern parts, anâ theyâre known as the âYowieâ. The term is first recorded in the 1920s. A box in which a woman accumulates items in preparation for marriage; the collection itself. This meaning of poppy is likely to refer to the Roman historian Livyâs account of Tarquinius Superbus, who silently showed how to deal with potential enemies by striking off the heads of the tallest poppies in his garden with a stick. It comes from Dorothy Dix, the pen-name of Elizabeth Gilmer (1870-1951), an American journalist who wrote a famous personal advice column which was syndicated in Australia. 1962 Bulletin (Sydney) 3 March: I donât feel a bit like work today⦠I think Iâll take a sickie. English also borrowed the word war from the French in the twelfth century; it's the same word as modern French guerre. The name possibly comes from the poem âFairy Breadâ in Robert Louis Stevensonâs A Childâs Garden of Verse, published in 1885. The compound fair dinkum 'fair dealing which is just and equitable' is recorded from Lincolnshire in 1881, and is the equivalent of West Yorkshire fair doos fair dealing. It is first recorded in 1937, and probably comes from British (mainly Scots) dialect snag meaning âa morsel, a light mealâ. The abbreviation Aussie is a typical example of the way Australians abbreviate words and then add the -ie (or -y) suffix. 1935 Advocate (Burnie) 14 September: There are several different varieties of Pavlova cake. A catchphrase popularised by Malcolm Fraser (Prime Minister 1975â83) and later attributed by him to the British playwright George Bernard Shaw. As with other rhyming slang terms the rhyming element is often omitted, hence we sometimes see the forms to do a Harold and to do a Harry. 1929 H. MacQuarrie We and Baby: 'She'll be apples!' It is an abbreviation of the British dialect word goggy 'a child's name for an egg', retained in Scotland as goggie. Porteous Cattleman: 'The bloke on the other end of the line is only some useless galah tryin' to sell a new brand of dip'. The word is a borrowing from French in the Middle English period, and meant, literally, 'a person who battles or fights', and figuratively 'a person who fights against the odds or does not give up easily'. Oil is often found in the terms dinkum oil and good oil, both also occurring in the context of the First World War. An earlier Australian sense of digger was âa miner digging for gold â. These senses of bush week go back to the early 20th century. Give it a burl is first recorded in the early years of the 20th century. Stoush was also used to refer to military engagement during the First World War, and later the phrase the big stoush was used of the war itself. As a positive symbol it featured in the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics: âThe cultural symbols of our backyard suburbiaâthe Hills Hoist and the lawn mowerâare so respectably well entrenched that they featured at the Olympics.â (Australian 7 October 2000). I'm no squib; I'm as "game" as "Ned" Kelly. 2001 S. Strevens The Things We Do: 'You prick!' It is a shortened form of are you all right? An endlessly renewable resource. The term comes from a famous Australian children's book, Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding (1918), in which the pudding renews itself as soon as slices are cut out of it. The Australian senses of dag may have also been influenecd by the word wag (a habitual joker), and other Australian senses of dag referring to sheep (see rattle your dags below). First recorded in the 1820s. And it remains in use today, often in the collocation mug lair, applied to someone supposed to be both stupid and vulgar, as in the description published in the Australian in August 1982 of a particular Carlton half-forward flanker as 'a mug lair and a show pony'. A phrase used to allude to wool as the source of Australiaâs national prosperity. 2015 T. Parsons Return to Moondilla: 'Liz is busting to see you', Pat said. 2004 Australian (Sydney) 12 June (Magazine): Physical attractiveness is multi-dimensional: after all, one person's spunkrat is another person's .. er, rat. 2014 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 23 January: Catholic Church officials once thought child-sex abuse victims just needed a 'cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down' to get over crimes committed against them by paedophile clergy. A shark. It was popularised by the use of boofhead as the name of a dimwitted comic strip character invented by R.B. 1891 Truth (Sydney) 15 March: Jackeroos .. are such fun, and vary, from the sensible one, in a fair way for promotion, to the larrikin, who will either sling station life or hump the swag. Ocker is also used as an adjective meaning characteristically Australian; uncouth, uncultured, or aggressively boorish in a stereotypically Australian manner. 1991 Australian Financial Review (Sydney) 10 September: Santa training courses start in Octoberâso pull out that red suit with the fur trimmings, and get accustomed to sticky fingers and wet patches on your knee. It applied to a person of great heart, who displayed courage, loyalty, and mateship. 2015 Australian (Sydney) 6 February: One option would be to skip the spill motion and go directly to a call for candidates for the leadership. Ladies bring a plate. In standard English a verandah is âa roofed platform along the outside of a house, level with the ground floorâ, but in Australia it also refers to the same kind of open-sided roofed structure over a shop or commercial building. Other common examples includes budgie (a budgerigar), rellie (a relative), and tradie (a tradesperson). In Australia ocker has been used as a nickname and familiar form of address for a man since the early 20th century. 2006 Townsville Bulletin 3 January: Dr Low was the only orthopaedic surgeon working in Townsville over the break and according to hospital sources was flat out like a lizard drinking. Yuong Jack Hansen undertook to sit him but failed at every attempt. Originally the nickname was applied to a person named Oscar, but its application widened through the 20th century as this quotation demonstrates: Traveller, arriving late at the airport to find the flight fully booked, was told by the cheerful airline worker: 'Sorry, ocker, the Fokker's chocker'. 1993 Advertiser (Adelaide) 9 June: Maybe when Mr Keating has finished educating the judiciary, he might have a go at the politicians and bureaucrats, starting with arithmetic. 1927 News (Adelaide) 8 December: âGive us a definition of âplonkâ?â asked Mr McMillan. The term is used with allusion to an emu bending its neck toward the ground in search of food. 2013 Sydney Morning Herald 23 October: We welcomed the byelection so we could send you the message: we don't support a government that is giving us the rough end of the pineapple. I love her far horizons, 1932 J. Truran Green Mallee: South Australia was still a long way off; too far for sore feet that were not used to the wallaby-track. The phrase is first recorded in the 1920s. Theories about the origin of the word Hughie range from alterations of the names Jupiter, Zeus, or Yahweh, to the classical Greek huei âit is rainingâ. 1849 G.F. Angas Description of the Barossa Range: No convicts are transported to this place, for South Australia is not a penal colony. Anzac Day, April 25, is a national public holiday in Australia commemorating all those who have served and died in war. 'I'm full up to Dolly's wax', Harry would say, patting his neck. âTo get a wigwam for a goose's bridleâ, yelled Smiley insolently, recalling one of the sayings of Granny McKinley, the oldest inhabitant. Magic pudding is often found in political contexts, the first recording of it is when it was used by the then Australian treasurer Paul Keating (see quotation below). What a sheila. The first written record of Australia (an anglicised form of Terra Australis) as a name for the known continent did not occur until 1794. While not a physical beating of the ears, most people can sympathise with a person who has sustained a long taking to (an ear-bashing) by a boring or obnoxious windbag (an earbasher).The verb is first recorded from the 1940s, and possibly comes from Australian … Weird And Wonderful Words. 1999 T. Astley Drylands: Out there all over the wide brown land, was a new generation of kids with telly niblets shoved into their mental gobs from the moment they could sit up in a playpen. The term was applied during the First World War to Australian and New Zealand soldiers because so much of their time was spent digging trenches. 1889 C. Praed Romance of the Station: He pulled up, nodding to Alecâs 'Good-day, Tillidge', and replying in a short, morose manner, running his words one into the other, as a bushman does, 'Gâd-day, sir'. Bondi is the Sydney suburb renowned worldwide for its surf beach. Sickie is an abbreviation of the term sick leave, and illustrates a distinctive feature of Australian English â the addition of -ie or -y to abbreviated words or phrases. There is one odd story about the drongo, however: unlike most migratory birds, it appears to migrate to colder regions in winter. Very genuine, very loyal; expressing Australian values; Australian. Chandler wrote in Darkest Adelaide: Sitting on the seat with him was a nice specimen of the Australian larrikin. The word yabby is a borrowing from the Wemba Wemba language of Victoria. The term derives from the joking notion (as perceived from the southern states of Australia) that Queenslanders spend their time putting bends into bananas. A gambling game in which two coins are tossed in the air and bets laid as to whether both will fall heads or tails uppermost. Another illness probably caused by poor diet was Barcoo sickness (also called Barcoo vomit, Barcoo spew, or just Barcoo), a condition characterised by vomiting. Snag has generated another, rhyming slang, term for the humble sausage: the aptly named mystery bag. The popularity of the adjective lairy quickly spawned a noun and a verb to match. For a discussion of this and other footwear terms, see our blog âFootwear in Australian Englishâ from May 2015. au has the sound of ow in cow, how. On 13 November 1979 the Canberra Times reported that 'Greg Chappell's decision to send England in appeared to have boomeranged'. Poultry mash and tinned cat food make more unusual berleying material, although this pales beside a Bulletin article in 1936 suggesting 'a kerosene-tinful of rabbit carcasses boiled to a pulp' as the best berley for Murray cod. But this meaning is now obsolete. Other examples include: arvo (afternoon), Salvo (Salvation army officer), dermo (dermatologist), and gyno (gynaecologist). Voters who merely number the candidates in the order they are listed on the ballot paper (without regard for the merits of the candidates) are casting a donkey vote - that is, a stupid vote. In Western Australia, however, it is a term for what is known elsewhere as a 'boomerang'. ; a panacea. Dinkum is an Australianism meaning âreliableâ or âgenuine', and dinkum oil means âreliable informationâ or âan accurate reportâ. Household linen, and the department of a shop where such goods are sold. Barbecue stopper is now used in a wide range of contexts. From the early twentieth century it moved out to be a more general term of abuse, especially as applied to a person who appears to live off the efforts of others (as a pimp lives on the earnings of a prostitute). The term is recorded from the 1930s. To scam, misuse, or to treat fraudulently. 1919 Smith's Weekly (Sydney): 'The Northern Territory aborigines have an infernal - allegedly musical - instrument composed of two feet of hollow bamboo. First recorded in this sense 1916. Crook means bad in a general sense, and also in more specific senses too: unwell or injured (a crook knee), and dishonest or illegal (he was accused of crook dealings). Please help, as I don't want bathroom manchester to tear us apart. It appears in a mid-nineteenth century English slang dictionary as a term for 'a low thief, who does not hesitate to use violence'. See our blog âThe convict origins of âpublic servantââ for a discussion of the term. See our Word of the Month articles 'chook run' and 'chook lit' for further uses of chook. A governmentâs free-market approach to economic management. It wasn't always the case. The sense comes from the United States, where it originally referred to an assistant at a sideshow whose purpose was to appear an object of disgust or derision. This term often appears in the phrase even blind Freddy could see that. Although the term may not derive from an actual person, early commentators associate it with a blind Sydney character or characters. The story of wild horses in the Australian landscape was vividly brought to life in Banjo Paterson's 1890 poem 'The Man from Snowy River': 'There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around/ That the colt from old Regret had got away,/ And had joined the wild bush horses.' âYes, I can do thatâ, replied the obliging Mr Collins. 2000 S. Maloney Big Ask: He put his plate down, as if the subject had ruined his appetite, parked his elbows on the table and gave me the oil. In a widening of this sense, the phrase came to mean 'to win selection, recognition, approbation', and is commonly used in non-sporting contexts: 1957 D. Whitington Treasure upon Earth: The executive won't give me a guernsey for the Senate. 1985 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 5 July: Mr Keating had warned throughout the tax debate that there was no 'magic pudding' to provide tax cuts for all. 2004 Mercury (Hobart) 19 June: And when your dad was busy in the shed and you repeatedly asked âWhat's that dad?â there were all those variants on âA wigwam for a goose's bridleâ. It can refer to a close friend or acquaintance, but can also be used ironically. Yidaki is a borrowing from the Yolgnu languages of north-eastern Arnhem Land (Northern Territory). is recorded from the 1960s. It means 'to remove potatoes from the ground, leaving the tops undisturbed'. "that in the early days of that colony, a Lieutenant Brumby, who was on the staff of one of the Governors, imported some very good horses, and that some of their descendants being allowed to run wild became the ancestors of the wild horses of New South Wales and Queensland". A forlorn hope; no prospect whatever. Boomerang is a corruption used at Sydney by the white people, but not the native word, which is tur-ra-ma; but 'kiley' is the name here. The word has been used to denote another item of clothing - denim working trousers or overalls - but the citation evidence indicates (the last citation being 1950) that this usage is no longer current. First recorded in the 1970s. 1965 G. McInnes Road to Gundagai: We were reminded by politicians and editors, and of course at school, ad nauseum, that Australia âlives off the sheepâs backâ. 2000 C. Walker Buried Country: Harry, Wilga says 'was more or less a drifter'. 1965 I. Hamilton Persecutor: I always know how much I lose on the pokies. As a symbol, the hills hoist has both positive and negative connotations in Australian culture. Not surprisingly, they have looked for alternative words, and instead of 'Aborigine' many prefer to use the word for a 'person' from a local language. Some bikies procure, distribute and sell drugs through their 'associates', who in turn sell them to kids. The bird referred to is the grey-backed, pink-breasted cockatoo Eolophus roseicapillus, occurring in all parts of Australia except the extreme north-east and south-west. The term is the creation of non-British Australian migrants, especially children, who needed a term to counter the insulting terms directed at them by Australians of British descent. Knowledgeable, an expertââDoes Robbo know anything about paving? earbash. In Australia there are a number of cockies including cow cockies, cane cockies and wheat cockies. Unease about the word convict led to the creation of euphemistic terms, including government man and public servant (both recorded from 1797).