The Illustrated Dictionary of
Australian English

Words and Phrases in Afferbeck Lauder

Ab

aboriginality: awareness of being a first nations australian; The descendants of the original custodians of Australia who maintain links to their country and customs.; first nations
abos: australian aborigines; Generally derogatory but may be used in Aboriginal English without being offensive.; first nations
ac/dc: bisexual
Acca Dacca: ac / dc; The nickname for the undisputed Kings of Aussie Rock.; ac / dc it's a long way to the top
act: to pretend to be someone or something which you are not; He's bungin' on an act.It is wiser to be natural, and speak the truth about yourself.
act the goat: to behave foolishly
Adrian Quist: drunk; A champion aussie tennis player.

Adrian Quist (1913–1991) I’m on the turps again—got Adrian Quist somethin’ terrible the other night.; rhyming slang: quist for pissed
Advance Australia Fair: the national anthem of australia Replaced God Save the Queen in 1984.; composed in 1878 by peter mccormick; See also Waltzin' Matilda, the national song of Australia.
aerial ping-pong: australian rules football; A jocular (and frequently derisive) name for Australian Rules Football. The term derives from the fact that the play in this game is characterised by frequent exchanges of long and high kicks. The term is used largely by people from States in which Rugby League and not Aussie Rules is the major football code.

Af

AFL: 1 australian football league; The organisation which replaced the Victorian Football League in 1990 and which regulates the national Australian Rules Football competition.
2 a game of australian rules football; The acronym AFL is used colloquially as a name for the sport when distinguishing it from other football codes, particularly in Qld and NSW.; aussie rules
afferbeck lauder: alphabetical order; See strine for more information.; strine
aggro: aggressive
airy-fairy: fancy , vague; Don't give me that airy-fairy bullshit.
akubra: a shallow-crowned wide-brimmed hat; It is a significant feature of rural Australia, of politicians (especially urban-based) travelling in the outback, and of expatriates who wish to emphasis their Australianness. Made from felted rabbit fur, the origin of the word is possibly from an Aboriginal language, and is now a proprietary name.; first recorded in 1920

Al

Al Capone: a telephone; Interestingly, Aussie slang – not American.; rhyming slang: al capone for phone
ALP: australian labor party; The oldest political party in the country, with its origins dating back to the 1870s and the formation of Australia's first trade unions.It is a left-wing political party, and is the oldest trade union-based political party in the world, historically representing the interests of trade unions and the working class, while also appealing to middle class intellectuals, especially those interested in social reform.The spelling Labor was adopted to make an association with the trade union movement in the USA, where labor is the standard spelling.Counterpart to the NLP, a right-wing political party.; used since 1912
alley: 1 a marble; 2 a two-up school
alluvium: sand, soil, etc deposited by a river or flood; In Australia the implication is that it contains gold.
all over ∼ bar the shouting: finished with for all intents and purposes
all yack ∼ and no yakka: all talk but no action; Describing someone who talks about – yacks – what they're going to do instead of doing it.
See yakka for more information.

Am

amber fluid: beer; A beer lover's term.
ambit claim: a claim made by employees; Made to a conciliation and arbitration court, it sets the boundaries of an industrial dispute.
It is a claim which anticipates bargaining and compromise with the employer and is therefore extreme in its demands.; first recorded in the 1920s
ambo: an ambulance driver; This is an aussie diminutive that follows a very common Australian pattern of word formation, with –o added to the diminutive form.; first recorded in the 1980s
anchors: the brakes on a motor vehicle; I threw on the anchors to avoid the ankle biters!
ankle biter: a small child
ant's pants: the best; An aussie original, meaning something really good.; australian slang
ANZAC: an aussie or kiwi soldier; From the initial letters of the
Australian & New Zealand Army Corps. It was the telegraphers who first started to use the shorthand ANZAC which was quickly picked up by the troops who started using it to refer to themselves. Originally referred only to the Gallipoli Campaigners, then to all WWI soldiers, and later extended to any aussie or kiwi soldier. The term Anzac, always capitalized, is protected under Australian law and cannot be used without permission from the Minister for Veterans' Affairs; misuse can be legally enforced, particularly for commercial purposes.; since the gallipoli campaign in 1915
Anzac biscuit: a sweet biscuit; Made using rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda, and boiling water. Notably, Anzac biscuit recipes omit eggs because of the scarcity of eggs during the war and so that the biscuits would not spoil when shipped long distances.; There is a general exemption under the law granted for Anzac biscuits, as long as these biscuits remain basically true to the original recipe and are both referred to and sold as Anzac biscuits and never as cookies.; popular in australia and new zealand
Anzac Bridge: a bridge in sydney harbour; Opened in 1996 to replace the former Glebe Island Bridge, it is the longest cable-stayed bridge in Australia.
Anzac spirit: the personal qualities of courage , tenacity , and sacrifice; A displayed by the original ANZACs on the battlefields of Gallipoli.
Anzac Day: the one day of the year; A national public holiday, considered by many Australians to be one of the most solemn days of the year.
It begins with the Dawn Service.
It is a day of remembrance that commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders:

Who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations, and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served.

The Anzac Day March from each state capital is televised live. Marches by veterans from all past wars, as well as current serving members of the Australian Defence Force and Reserves are held in cities and towns nationwide.
These events are generally followed by social gatherings of veterans, hosted either in a pub or in an RSL club, often including a game called two‑up, which was a popular pastime with ANZAC soldiers.; annually on 25 april
Anzac Pact: an agreement between australia and new zealand; Seeking a regional zone of defence in the south-west Pacific and asserting their joint interests and responsibilities in the region.; made in 1944
apples: perfect , as it should be , nice; I'm fitting a new propellor; then she'll be apples. Aussie English often uses the feminine pronoun she where standard English would use it. Instead of It'll be right, Australians say She'll be right.; first recorded in the 1920srhyming slang: apples and spice for nice

Ar

arc up: to become livid with anger; To flare up like a welders torch.
arf a mo: wait a short time; Literally, wait half a moment.
Arf a mo, I'm puttin' on me boots.
argue the toss: to dispute a decision or command; since the 1950s
aristotle: 1 a bottle rhyming slang: aristotle for bottle
2 the arse convoluted rhyming slang: aristotle for bottle
bottle and glass for arse
arse: the human posterior; A statement that such and such a thing happened may be denied with:
Pig's arse it did!
arse into gear: to get moving; When will you get your arse into gear?
arse about: 1 back to front; You've got your tee shirt on arse about!
2 playing the fool; Usually instead of working.
Stop arsing about and get on with the job?
arse over tit: to fall heavily; Look at that, he's fallen arse over tit!
arsey: lucky; You're so arsey, you've just backed another winner!
Also known as a tin arse.; since the 1950s
Arthur or Martha: to be in a state of confusion

The Leader of the Opposition does not know whether he is Arthur or Martha, Hekyll or Jekyll, coming or going.

In recent years it has also been used with reference to gender confusion, and in this sense it has been exported to other countries.
artist: a person known for a specified aspect of their behaviour; Such as a booze artist, a bullshit artist, and the like.
arvo: the afternoon; Classic aussie contraction using the o suffix.
You can also use the ie suffix and say arvie or aftie.; aussie diminutive since the 1920s
assignee: a convict assigned as a servant; colonial slang
as the crow flies: a direct route since the 19th century
Athens of the south: the city of melbourne; Because Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, has the largest Greek population of any city in the world, except for Athens, the capital of Greece.

Au

Aunty: the australian broadcasting corporation; Compare the acronym ABC with BBC, the British equivalent.
aussie: Pronounced oz-E; 1 australian; As in aussie beer, aussie tucker etcetera.
2 an australian person; There's a couple of Aussies at the bar.
In its widest sense this refers to any citizen of Australia, contextually it refers to a typical white Australian, as opposed to an Aboriginal Australian or a Torres Strait Islander, or other ethnic Australian.
3 australia; The land down under.
I can't wait to get back to Aussie.
4 the australian dollar; In financial parlance:
The aussie fell against the greenback today.
5 a type of pizza or hamburger with bacon and eggs; An aussie culinary favourite.
I'll have a meat-lovers pizza – no, make that an aussie.
aussie battler: a person with few advantages; One who works doggedly for little reward and displays courage in so doing.

Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of people in this country: the rich, the middle class, and the battlers.

Also known as the little aussie battler, or the battler
aussie cheer: the traditional sporting cheer for international events; Aussie, Aussie, Aussie—Oy, Oy, Oy
Popularised and brought to the rest of the world during the Sydney Olympic Games.
aussie crawl: a swimming stroke; In 1901 at Bronte Pool, Alick Whickham, a fifteen-year old boy who had moved to Sydney from the Soloman Islands, wowed the crowd with a stroke none of them had seen before. The style was common throughout the Solomon Islands where it was known as Tuppa-tup-pala.
He threw his arms into the water with his elbows bent and kicking up and down with his feet, prompting George Farmer, a well-known Sydney swimming coach, to shout,
Look at that kid crawling! At the time, competitive swimmers pulled themselves along on their sides, sliding through the water using a scissor kick. But according to reports, Wickham swam with his head held fairly high, turning it quickly from side to side breathing with each complete stroke.

The entry of his arms was short and towards the centre line of the body with the elbows well bent.
His arm action was very fast and short. Each arm performed a symmetrical action with the head turning from side to side as if breathing on each side, but only breathing on one side to each stroke.

The stroke was also known in other parts of the Pacific, with Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku claiming the same swimming style was also practised in Hawaii.
The same stroke was being developed independently by a British migrant.
London-born Frederick Cavill and his six sons are renowned as a pioneer Australian swimming family.
At the same time that Wickham wowed the Bronte Pool crowd, the Cavills were also developing a similar swimming style.; australian-invented, now used world-wide
aussie rules: the national football code; The leading footy game in the country, with the AFL Grand Final the highest attended club championship in the world.The game originated in Australia, inspired by English public school games and an Aboriginal football game called Marngrook.It was first codified in 1859 by Tom Wills, making it the oldest of the world's major football codes.; aussie rules
Australia Act: an act of parliament; Making the legislation of Australian parliaments independent of British parliaments and courts; passed first in Australia and then in Westminster.; enacted in 1986
Australian Aboriginal Flag: a flag that represents aboriginal australians; First flown at land rights demonstrations in the 1970s; it was designed in 1971 by Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas, who is descended from the Luritja people of Central Australia.It is one of the official flags of Australia holding special legal and political status.; Often flown together with the national flag and with the Torres Strait Islander Flag, which is also an official flag of Australia.; first nations
Australian Honours: an honours system; The Order of Australia, with a general and a military division, is the principal component.; established in 1975
Australian salute: a movement of the arm and hand to bush away flies from your face.; Also called a Barcoo salute or bush salute.
Australia Day: the australian national day; Commemorating the landing, on 26 January 1788, of Captain Arthur Phillip at Port Jackson. Australia Day is arguably the most unique national day in the world because, rather than unite, it seems to divide Australians into different viewpoints.

We must be the only country in the world that marks its national day not by celebrating its identity, but by questioning it.

The majority of Australians just use the day to have a barbeque or do some other pastime that takes advantage of the great things about the Australian lifestyle.Although Australia Day has virtually no symbolic meaning today, its origins can be traced to a desire for egalitarianism that much of the world has strived for and which arguably no country has achieved as successfully as Australia.Some have interpreted it to mean that the government is celebrating the invasion of Australia and the dispossession of Aboriginal Australian people.They use the day to participate in an Aboriginal protest march or call for the date (known as Invasion Day) to be changed.; For Convicts, January 26 1788 was not a happy time. It marked the establishment of a penal colony where they suffered some of the worst human rights violations that the world had even seen. Women were pack raped by officers on transport ships and then assigned to free settlers as if cattle. Men were flogged until their backbones were exposed to the flies.Despite these hardships, or perhaps because of them, in 1808 emancipated Convicts used January 26 as a date to organise great parties to celebrate the land they lived in. In a way, the parties celebrated their survival.; annual public holiday on 26 january
Australian national flag: five white stars of the southern cross and the white commonwealth star; On a blue background with a Union Jack in canton.
avago: have a go; A barrackers cry of encouragement.; aussie rules
avo: an avocado; aussie diminutive
awake: fully aware; He's awake up to what's going on.; flash language
away with the fairies: no longer in tune with reality
ay: a tag used at the end of a sentence inviting assent; Wasn't that lucky, ay?In Qld and NZ it is used repetitously at the end of virtually every statement, without any sense of it being a question.
I was going down the shops, ay.
And I ran into Johnno, ay.
Hadn't seen him for weeks, ay.

Welcome to Australia!

This is a peculiar country where the principles of culture appear to have been turned upside down. Australians seem blissfully unaware of the achievements of their intellectuals… yet they will celebrate long dead horses, yobbo sportsmen, and bushrangers.

They often forget the words of their national anthem… yet it would be wrong to say they are not patriotic, as a song about a suicidal sheep thief seems to instil them with a great deal of pride.

If they like you, they will not give you compliments. Instead, they might call you names like bastard or drongo — and then laugh at all the silly things you have done. If you have red hair, you might be called Bluey. If you are tall, you might be called Shorty. If you are quiet, you might be called Rowdy.

There is no better way of life in the world than that of the Australian.
I firmly believe this.

The grumbling, growling, cursing, profane, laughing, beer drinking, abusive, loyal-to-his-mates Australian is one of the few free men left on this earth.

He fears no one, crawls to no one, bludgers on no one, and acknowledges no master.

Learn his way. Learn his language. Get yourself accepted as one of him; and you will enter a world that you never dreamed existed.

And once you have entered it, you will never leave it.

aussie emblems

Coats of Arms

Floral Emblems

Australian history is almost always picturesque; indeed, it is also so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer and so it pushes the other novelties into second and third place.

It does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies; and all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old stale ones.

It is full of surprises and adventures, the incongruities, and contradictions, and incredibilities; but they are all true, they all happened.
Mark Twain, 1897

first australians

Long before a word of English was ever spoken in Australia, the Aboriginal languages were heard all over the continent.

Each group or mob has its own language, but those languages spoken close to what later became the main centres of European population were those which have had the most influence on modern Aussie English.

Aboriginal words are likely to have been absorbed into Aussie English as local leaders from both native groups and colonists tried to find some tentative common ground; and as the new arrivals sought to find names for the strange new things they were seeing.

Aboriginal words common in Aussie English include yakka, meaning work–common usage is the collocation ‘hard yakka’, and cooee, first used by Aboriginal people calling each other through the bush.

Also of indigenous origin is bung, from the language Yagara in the Brisbane region, meaning "dead" and by extension "broken" or "useless".

Many place names are Aboriginal — the capital Canberra is so‑named because it means "meeting place" in Ngunnawal, the traditional language of the Ngunnawal and Gandangara peoples.

Commonly used Aboriginal words include many animal names, such as kookaburra, koala, wallaby and dingo.

animals of australia

immigrant influences

Whether convicts or willing migrants, the Europeans who found their way to Australia from the eighteenth century onwards came from a wide range of different groups.

At that time, there were great differences between different British English dialects, so that convicts from different regions of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland would all have spoken very differently.
Some would not have spoken English at all – being Irish or Scots Gaelic or Welsh speakers.

To understand each other, these groups would have begun to create a common language, and words from various dialects would have become part of a new slang and new idioms.

new australians

The children of those early settlers would have been keen to mark themselves out as Australians, rather than Irish or English, and that meant that new accents and speech patterns developed as quickly as the colony itself did.

It was almost as if an informal Australian school of English and Irish arrivals alike had set itself up. Words which found their way into the language via the convicts include tucker, an Irish word for food, and swag a word from the criminal underworld meaning a parcel of goods taken by a thief, but coming to mean a bushman's bag.

the gold rush days

This era brought words such as fossick into common usage.

The Gold Rush Days

the bushrangers

Many terms come from the bushranger tradition, such as bush telegraph, bail up, and game as Ned Kelly.

the first world war

WWⅠ added another layer of slang, such as dinkum , meaning genuine or real.

Australian English is peppered with unique slang words and particular types of phraseology such as strine and ocker.

diminutives in australia

The use of diminutive forms of words such as arvo for afternoon or barbie for barbecue is common. Some words, such as ute, from utility vehicle, a car with a tray back, have become universal.

While many languages make use of diminutives, Aussie English uses them extensively – there are over 5,000 identified diminutives in use in Australia.

let stalk strine!

Professor Lauder knows the answers‼

Do you have a Gloria Soame?
What are sex? What is an egg nishner? And where checque etcher londger ray?

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The Illustrated Dictionary of
Australian English

Words and Phrases in Afferbeck Lauder

The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian English

Ab

Af

Al

Am

Ar

Au

The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian English

The Illustrated Dictionary of
Australian English

The Illustrated Dictionary of
Australian English