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Illustrated Dictionary of Australian English

Words and Phrases in Afferbeck Lauder

S

sacred site: a place of spiritual significance
They may be hills, rocks, waterholes, trees, plains and other natural features of the landscape, ranging in size from a single stone or plant to an entire mountain range. In coastal and sea areas they may include features which lie both above and below water.
Some are obvious, such as ochre deposits, rock art galleries, or spectacular natural features. In other instances they may be unremarkable to an outside observer.
They are recognised and protected as an integral part of the national cultural heritage, under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act and the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act.
aboriginal australia
sandgroper: a person from western australia
Either born in WA, or regards it as his or her home.
salute ∼ the great australian salute: to brush flies away
Also known as a barcoo salute or bush salute, it is the waving of one's hand in front of the face at regular intervals in order to prevent bush flies from landing on it, or entering one's nose or mouth.
saltbush: a plant that grows in saline areas

A familiar sight over large areas of the dry desert country of Australia, it is a sprawling grey-blue shrub growing up to 3m high. It is a long living plant, growing strongly after periods of summer rain, producing long tassels of flowering seed heads.
Aboriginal Australians collect the seeds to grind and roast to make damper.
saltie: saltwater crocodile
The swamps, rivers and estuaries across the north are home to one of the biggest, fiercest — and perhaps most misunderstood — predators in the world.
Crocodylus porosus are the world’s largest living reptile, growing up to 6m long and weighing up to a tonne.
Protected since 1970, the population is around 100,000 in the NT alone and probably more than 150,000 Australia-wide.
aussie diminutive
Salvos: the salvation army
The Army's purposes are:
The advancement of the Christian religion …
of education, the relief of poverty, and other charitable objects beneficial to society or the community of mankind as a whole.
It is also the nickname of their op-shops. Let's go down to the salvos.
founded by william booth in 1865
sanga ∼ sanger, sambo: a sandwich
aussie diminutive
sav: saveloy
A highly seasoned sausage, boiled and consumed at fairs, fêtes, agricultural shows and sporting events. Often covered in dead horse and served on a slice of bread or in a bread roll.
Also known as a cheerio. aussie diminutive

S

scallywag

rascal, mischievious person

schnozz

nose

school of the air

a system of schooling for children in rural and remote areas
Pioneered in Australia in 1951 to supplement correspondence education. Teachers use high-frequency, two-way radio to broadcast lessons and communicate with students. Email, the internet, video, and fax are also used today.
It remains the most important means of education for children who have no access to school.

schooner

1 a 285 ml glass of beer in queensland

2 a medium glass of beer in south australia
This word is understood around the country.
For more information see
beer, middy, and seven.

scozzer

a flannie-clad, mullet-sporting yobbo
Australia-wide known as a bogan

Qld: bevan

NSW: westie

Tas: chigger

vic slang

scratchy

instant lottery ticket
Played by scratching the ticket to reveal a prize (if won).

screamer ∼ two pot screamer

a person who has a low tolerance of alcohol

screamer

a spectacular overhead mark

Regarded by many fans of aussie rules as the epitome of skill.
aussie rules

scungies

a brief men's swimming costume
See speedos for a full set of synonyms.

scungy

unpleasant

S

secret business: ceremony and ritual that is open only to a particular group
The word business in this term is from Aboriginal English, and means ‘traditional Aboriginal lore and ritual’, and is recorded from 1907. Secret business is first recorded much later in 1986, and from it have developed terms with a more specific reference: secret men’s business, for ceremony and ritual that is open only to men, and secret women’s business, for ceremony and ritual that is open only to women.
From the late 1990s the terms transferred into standard aussie english where they are used jokingly in non-Aboriginal contexts.
Kingswood driving is secret men's business—just like pushing a shopping trolley straight is secret women’s business. New Idea (Melbourne) 29 November 1997

aboriginal australian english
septic tank ∼ seppo: an american person
rhyming slang: septic tank for yank
servo: petrol station
seven: a seven fluid ounce glass of beer
Throughout the country when you order a beer you will get a seven fluid ounce glass.
See beer, schooner, middy and glass for more information.
shag: sexual intercourse
shaggin' wagon: a panel van
Usually set up with padded velvet, soft lights and stereo, for purposes of seduction.
See panel van for more information.
shag on a rock: someone isolated, lonely, exposed
Everyone pissed off and left me like a shag on a rock!
shithouse: of poor quality, unenjoyable
The movie was shithouse.
shit house: lavatory
sheep shagger: a new zealander
aussie slang first recorded in 1894
sheep's back on the …: a reference to the wool industry

The source of Australia's colonial prosperity, started by the squatters.
sheila: a girl or girlfriend, a woman
A nickname and generic use of the Irish girl's name, first used in Australia and NZ, and in Britain in the late 19th century. It is basically a bloke's word; women on the whole do not use it. Don't call me a sheila! Some men seem to think it is a neutral word, rather than a derogatory one, and formerly this may have been the truth, but nowadays women in general don't much like being called sheilas. aussie slang first recorded in 1830s
shonky: dubious, underhanded
shoot through ∼ like a Bondi tram: make a hasty departure
Two trams typically left the Sydney CBD for Bondi together, the first an express tram which would shoot through from Darlinghurst to Bondi Junction.; aussie slang since 1945
shout: turn to buy
Usually a round of drinks.
shower: an admonishment that one has more intelligence than another assumes
I'm not stupid, I didn't come down in the last shower!
show pony: someone who tries hard, by his dress or behaviour, to impress those around him

S

sickie: a period of sick leave, often one day
Usually with the implication that there is insufficient medical reason for the absence from work. Surf's up! I'm chuckin a sickie
skite: boast, brag
skull: to consume a drink – usually alcohol
Drunk in a single draught without taking a breath.
slab: a carton of stubbies or cans of beer

Usually containing two dozen of either.
sleepout: a veranda, porch, or outbuilding
Used for sleeping accommodation.
slushy: a cook's assistant or kitchen hand
sluggos: a brief men's swimming costume
See speedos for a full set of synonyms.
smoko: a break from work for a smoke, coffee, tea, etc.

An institution symbolic of working culture, and even of workers' rights. The Industrial Relations Commission has arbitrated cases of industrial action over workers' entitlement to a smoko, so nowadays even non-smokers can take a smoko break.
snag: a sausage
aussie slang since 1941
sook: one who is soft, inoffensive

S

spanner water: very cold water
Because, of course, it tightens the nuts, especially for icebergs.
aussie slang since the 1930s
speccy: a spectacular overhead mark

Regarded by many fans of aussie rules as the epitome of skill.
aussie rules
speedos: a brief men's swimming costume
There are a host of terms for tight-fitting (and revealing) men's swimwear:
sluggos, cock jocks, CJs, DTs, dick togs, dick daks, racers, scungies See budgie smugglers for more. a trademark used generically
spewin': very angry
spew: to vomit
spruiker: someone employed to verbally encourage potential customers
sprung: caught doing something wrong
spit the dummy: have a tantrum
sport ∼ a good sport: fair minded person
spunk: a person of either sex who is regarded as sexually attractive
squatter: someone who settled on crown land
One of a group of rural landowners, either free settlers or ex-convicts, who first took up Crown land in order to graze livestock without government permission.
They gained its usage by being the first (and often the only) settlers in the area with a lease or licence and became rich and influential, especially on the sheep's back. The term soon developed a class association, suggesting an elevated socio-economic status and entrepreneurial attitude. By 1840 squatters were recognized as being amongst the wealthiest men in the colony of New South Wales, many of them from upper and middle-class English and Scottish families.
Eventually the term came to refer to a person of high social prestige who grazes livestock on a large scale (whether the station was held by leasehold or freehold title).
In Australia the term is still used to describe large landowners, especially in rural areas with a history of pastoral occupation.
Hence the term, squattocracy, a play on aristocracy.
colonial era
squirrel grip: to grab and crush someone's testicles
To go the squirrel is the practice of gripping another player's testicles in a scrum, maul or tackle in either Rugby League or Rugby Union and is in common use throughout NSW, Qld and the ACT.
rugby slang
squizz: a look
Take a squizz at this.

S

stack: accident, crash, fall
stacks: lots of something
Come over, I've got stacks of beer.
stack on a blue: become extremely angry
stickybeak: a nosy person
stirrer: one who causes trouble
stoked: very pleased
I'll bet you're stoked with your new car.
originally surfie slang
stolen generation: aboriginal children who were taken from their families
From 1883–1969 thousands of Aboriginal children were placed in institutions or fostered with white families.
aboriginal australia
stonkered: perplexed, defeated, cornered
stoush: a fight or brawl
Hence, an argument or altercation.
Used by soldiers to refer to war or a battle.
WWI was commonly known as The Big Stoush.
aussie slang since the 1890s
strewth!: god's truth!
Strewth! That bloke's got no strides on! a mild oath in strine
strides: trousers
strine: aussie slang and pronunciation
Do you have a Gloria Soame? What is an egg Nishner?
What are sex? Where checque etcher londger ray?; Professor Lauder knows the answers!
stubby: a short, squat beer bottle
With a capacity between 330⁓375 ml.
See also Darwin stubby
stubbies: a pair of short pants
stuffed: 1 very tired; 2 broken
stump: a seat
Bus driver welcoming a passenger:
Grab a stump!
stroppy: in a bad mood, being difficult
subbie: sub-contractor
suicide season: a feeling of oppression during the approach of the wet season
Afflicts residents of the top end during the build-up to the wet season and marked by an increase in heat and humidity, causing tension and irritability.
Also called mango madness or simply troppo.
sunnies: sunglasses
surfies: people who go surfing
suss: suspicious
That bloke looks pretty suss.
suss it out: check something
Something's wrong, I'll go and suss it out.
swag: 1 the possessions of one travelling, usually on foot in the bush; 2 the blanket-wrapped roll carried by a swagman
swagman ∼ swaggie: an itinerant worker or a drifter

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 Aboriginal origin is bung, from the aboriginal 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 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.