The Illustrated Dictionary of
Australian English

Words and Phrases in Afferbeck Lauder

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nana: a banana
To chuck a nana is to have a tantrum.
Also known as doin' your nana.
If you are off your nana you are crazy.; aussie diminutive
narky: short tempered
Jack'll be narked about this.
naughty: sexual intercourse; since 1959
neddies: the horseraces
In early British slang this meant a donkey.; since the 1880s
Ned Kelly: australia's unofficial national hero; To be game as Ned Kelly is to be outstandingly courageous. Ned Kelly, in his rambling Jerilderie letter, called Victoria's police
a parcel of big ugly fat-necked wombat headed big bellied magpie legged narrow hipped splaw-footed sons of Irish bailiffs or English landlords...
need your head read: you are acting insane since the 1950s
neenish tart: a small pastry confection
Made with almond flavoured pastry and a topping half one colour and half another, usually a combination of white and chocolate or white and pink.; aussie recipe first recorded in 1902
never-never: the desert country
Especially the sparsely populated areas of the NT and Qld.; since the 1830s
new chum: a novice or inexperienced person
Originally a newly transported convict, and later any newly arrived immigrant.
I was the new chum on the job.
Adopted as the name of a Brisbane suburb.; since the 1850s
newie: something completely new, a novelty
Often used sarcastically:
My, that's a newie!; since the 1920s

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nibs: an ironic title for an important person, especially an employer
His nibs has asked us to work a little harder.
nick: 1 state or condition
This car is in great nick.
2 to steal
Did you nick these flowers?
3 to capture or arrest
I got nicked for stealing these flowers.
4 prison
He's been released from the nick after five years.
5 to go or move with speed
I'm just nicking off to the shops.
Nick off, you stupid bugger – and don't come back!
ning-nong: a simpleton; since the 1950s
niggly: in a bad mood
nipper: 1 young child; 2 junior member of a surf lifesaving club
nippy: cold
NLP: national liberal party
The National Liberal Party, also Liberal or The Coalition, is an Australian right-wing political party.
Counterpart to the ALP

N

noah's ark: a shark; Commonly shortened to noah.; rhyming slang since the 1940s: noah 's ark for shark
nod your head: to plead guilty
To accept blame or responsibility for something
Also in the form nod your nut.; aussie underworld slang since the 1950s
no flies on you: you cannot be easily deceived
A complimentary australianism that has been exported to the USA.; since the 1840s
no biggie: no big deal
no drama: no problem
nong: a simpleton; since the 1950s
norks: breasts; since the 1960s
no worries ∼ no risk: an exclamation of reassurance or approval; Have we got enough beer?
No risk, we've got heaps.
Thanks for bringing the beer.
No worries, mate!; since the late 1950s
no wuckas: no worries
No wuckas, mate.
Meaning No fucking worries, mate.

A short form of no wuckin' furries.; since the late 1950s
nosebag: a meal
Hence, to put on the nosebag is to begin a meal.
not a sausage: absolutely nothing
Usually in reference to money.; rhyming slang: sausage and mash for cash
not happy, Jan: irritation, annoyance, or disapproval
From the Yellow Pages advertising campaign.; since 2002
not have a bar of: to have nothing to do with something; I won't have a bar of you blokes carrying on like this.
not know from a bar of soap: to be completely unfamiliar with
He doesn't know me from a bar of soap.
not much chop: no good since the 1840s
not the full quid: not having a full complement of intelligence since the 1940s

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nuggety: stocky and tough since the 1860s
nuddy: naked
numbat: a native marsupial
The adoption of this small, slow-moving creature as an emblem for WA in 1973 may be the reason for its continued existence.
Restricted to small areas in the south west of the state, the vulnerable species was critically endangered only a few years ago. Unlike other marsupials, it is pouch-less and mainly active during the day. Characteristically reddish-brown with white bands across its body and a brush-like tail, numbats have a pointed snout and long tongue, perfect for consuming up to 20,000 termites per day.; faunal emblem of wa
number ones: urination
number twos: defecation
nun's nasty: very dry
Hence the expression as dry as a nun's nasty.
nut left or right: avert your gaze
In the argot of the knockabout, to nut left or right was to avert your gaze from the evil eye of a cop or rival.
nut bag: a fool , a crazy person
nut out: negotiate an agreement, solve a problem

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.

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.

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?

australian gazetteer

the most comprehensive atlas you have ever seen

From Adavale (Qld) to Zeehan (Tas), this atlas will locate any town in Australia.

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Australian Colours

The Australian Independent Colour Standard AS 2700 was created in 1985. It is used in choosing colour schemes in the industrial, architectural, and decorative areas.

AS 2700 in HTML

it's the

The Illustrated Dictionary of
Australian English

Words and Phrases in Afferbeck Lauder

The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian English

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The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian English

The Illustrated Dictionary of
Australian English

The Illustrated Dictionary of
Australian English