To all the ones who think about visiting the Oz someday here's some aussie-slang words(of course they're not effective in all parts of the Oz)
Amber fluid-beer
Arvo-afternoon
Ankle biter-a small child
Antipodes-places on the opposite side of earth
Barbie-barbecue
Battler-someone who works hard just for make living
Big-note oneself-brag
Bloody-very e.g: "bloody hard yakka"
Bloody oath-that is certainly true
Blue-fight e.g:"he was having a blue with his wife"
those are just somes in A&B (it's bloody late in here) i'll just add one more word Pommies=Briton
see you around mates :)
I hear lots of Aussies say "tea" to mean "dinner" or "supper". Is it common throughout Australia?
and what does "chockers" mean? I heard this guy on TV say "This place is chockers." Does it mean "crowded" or something...? I just guessed from the context.
For an Aussie, Alexis, you are either dyslexic or not a real Aussie.
Why "THE Oz" and not just "Oz"? I didn't think you needed the definite article.
It's probably just a local nickname of theirs.
Simon, what if Alexis really is dyslexic?
"Battler-someone who works hard just for make living". This is a non-native speaker. There are some strange people out there...
Most books teach you that to speak australian you need to know an entire book of australian slang, that may be true if you are visiting the rural outback but it is not nessesary when visiting major cities. The biggest thing to remeber is that australian add little letters to the ends of there words or replace the last couple of letters, an american would prnounce remember as remember but an australian (in melbourne anyways) as rememba, also if you are with in the age of 18-30:
wanker: a not so rude term for a homosexual, not to be taken seriouslly
bag: insult, used in many contexts, "he baged you", kinda like diss
tool: just an insult, also not serious
also chockers is full, "its chockers in here" but normally spoken as "Its chockablock"
Chockers
I wanna know why Australians refer to almost all tubers as 'pumpkin'. Squash, zucchini, sweet potato, and actual pumpkin, are all called 'pumpkin'. Good thing there's no Hallowe'en in Australia ...
"Antipodes" isn't Australian slang. It is a normal English word used in every English-speaking nation.
Australian Lingo has absorbeda lot of Cockney rhyming slang which would
have been better off forgotten. Mostly used for comic effect in Pubs.
Adrian Quist - pissed
Al Capone - phone
almond rocks - socks
apples and pears - stairs
aristotle - bottle
babbling brook - cook
bag of fruit - suit
blood and blister - sister
Bob Hope - soap
brace and bit - shit
Captain Cook - look
cat's hiss - piss
china plate - mate
comic cuts - guts
country cousin - dozen
Dad 'n' Dave - shave
dead horse - sauce
dickory dock - clock
dog's eye - pie
dry rots - traveller's trots (diarrhea)
ducks and geese - police
frog and toad - road
Germaine Greer - ear
German band - hand
Ginger Meggs - legs
ginger beer - queer
Gregory Peck - neck
ham and eggs - legs
hammer and tack - back
Henry the Third - turd
hit and miss - piss
hoffman brick - dick
horse and cart - fart
horse's hoof - poof
jam tart - heart
Jimmy Britts - shits
Jimmy Dancer - cancer
Joe Blake - snake
Joe Hunt - cunt
John Hopper - copper
lemon squash - wash
Lionel Rose - nose
loop the loop - soup
mallee root - prostitute
Mickey Mouse - grouse
mince pies - eyes
mystery bags - snags (sausages)
Ned Kelly - belly
Niagara Falls - balls
Noah's Ark - shark
north and south - mouth
now is the hour - shower
on one's Pat Malone - alone
optic nerve - perve
Oxford scholar - dollar
piccadilly - chilly
plates of meat - feet
raspberry tart - fart
Rhodes scholar - dollar
rifle range - change
Sandy McNab - cab
septic tank - yank
skin and blister - sister
sky rocket - pocket
soldiers bold - cold
steak and kidney - Sydney
tea leaf - thief
trams and trains - brains
trouble and strife - wife
Wally Grout - shout
whistle and flute - suit
woolly woofter - poofter
young and old - cold
Regards, Paul V.
I don't think I've ever heard people in the States refer to some countries as "Antipodean."
I'm more familiar with 'dog and bone' for phone, and the old favourite (from Snatch of course) 'Barney Rubble' - trouble.
Excuse you!!!
1. We do not use cockney slang in Oz and our slang bears no resemblance to cockney slang. After reading that list I can honestly say that I have never heard any of these expressions used here.
2. Slang is used in the major cities just as often as in rural areas. The flavour of the slang changes by region. My foreign language friends here have difficulty understanding everything said on the streets of Sydney because of localised speech.
3. Oz don't refer to all tubers as pumpkin. We only refer to pumpkins as pumpkins. A zucchini is a zucchini, a potatoe a potatoe...I think you get the idea. I've never heard anyone here calling a sweet potatoe a pumpkin????
4. Antipodean is a normal english word that is rarely if ever used here. It's most often used by snobby brits to describe Oz's.
5. The word 'wanker' is never used to describe a homosexual person. It's used to describe someone who acts like an idiot. And if you think 'tool' isn't a serious insult then I'd challenge you to go to a local pub in Oz and call the bartender a tool to see what happens.
So rather than posting on a subject you know bugger all about as if you were some kind of authority why don't you post about your own culture and leave ours well enough alone.
P.S. Watching a few episodes of the Crocodile Hunter doesn't make you an expert on Oz culture and language.
Good on you mate I couldn't have said that better. I grew up myself in the streets of Sydney.
