Everything about Australian English Vocabulary totally explained
Spoken
Australian English is thought to be highly
colloquial, possibly more so than other spoken variants. Whether this idea is true or not, a substantial number of publications aimed at giving an overview of Australian English have been published.
Many books about Australian lore have been published, beginning with
Karl Lentzner's
Dictionary of the Slang-English of Australia and of Some Mixed Languages in 1892 . The first dictionary of based on historical principles that covered Australian English was
E. E. Morris's
Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages (
1898).
After a long period of uninterest and/or antipathy, the first synchronic dictionaries of Australian English began to appear. In 1976, the
Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary was published, the first dictionary edited and published in Australia. In 1981, the more comprehensive
Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English was published, after 10 years of research and planning. Updated editions have been published since and the Macquarie Dictionary is widely regarded as authoritative. Oxford University Press also publishes a range of dictionaries of Australian English, including the
Oxford Dictionary of Australian English.
Various publishers have also produced "phrase books" to assist visitors. These books reflect a highly exaggerated and often outdated style of Australian colloquialisms and they should partially be regarded as amusements rather than accurate usage guides.
History and origins
Australian English incorporates many terms that Australians consider to be unique to their country. One of the best-known of these is
outback which means a "remote, sparsely-populated area". Many such words, phrases or usages originated with British and Irish convicts transported to Australia in 1788-1868. And many words which are still used frequently by rural Australians are also used in all or part of England, with variations in meaning. For example: a
creek in Australia (as in
North America), is any "stream or small river", whereas in England it's a small watercourse flowing into the sea;
paddock is the Australian word for "field", while in England it's a small enclosure for livestock, and
bush (as in North America) or
scrub mean "wooded areas" or "country areas in general" in Australia, while in England, they're commonly used only in proper names (such as
Shepherd's Bush and
Wormwood Scrubs). Australian English and several British English dialects (eg.
Cockney,
Scouse,
Geordie) use the word
mate to mean a close friend of the same gender (or sometimes a platonic friend of the opposite sex), rather than the conventional meaning of "a spouse", although this usage has also become common in some other varieties of English.
The origins of other terms are not as clear, or are disputed.
Dinkum or
fair dinkum means "true", "the truth", "speaking the truth", and related meanings, depending on context and inflection. It is often claimed that dinkum was derived from the
Cantonese (or Hokkien)
ding kam, meaning "top gold", during the
Australian goldrushes of the 1850s. This, however, is chronologically improbable since
dinkum is first recorded in the 1890s. Scholars give greater credence to the notion that it originated with a now-extinct dialect word from the
East Midlands in England, where
dinkum (or
dincum) meant "hard work" or "fair work", which was also the original meaning in Australian English. The derivation
dinky-di means a 'true' or devoted Australian. The words
dinkum or
dinky-di and phrases like
true blue are widely purported to be typical Australian sayings, however these sayings are more commonly used in jest or parody rather than as an authentic way of speaking.
Similarly,, a stereotypical Australian greeting, is no longer synonymous with "good day" in other varieties of English (it can be used at night time) and is never used as an expression for "farewell", as "good day" is in other countries.
Sheila, Australian slang for "woman", is derived from the
Irish girls name
Síle (
IPA: /ʃiːlʲə/, anglicized
Sheila).
Words of Australian Aboriginal origin
Some elements of
Aboriginal languages have been incorporated into Australian English, mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example
dingo,
kangaroo). Beyond that, few terms have been adopted into the wider language, except for some localised terms, or slang. Some examples are
cooee and
Hard yakka. The former is a high-pitched call (pronounced /kʉː.iː/) which travels long distances and is used to attract attention.
Cooee has also become a notional distance:
if he's within cooee, we'll spot him.
Hard yakka means
hard work and is derived from
yakka, from the
Yagara/
Jagara language once spoken in the
Brisbane region. Also from the Brisbane region comes the word
bung meaning broken. A failed piece of equipment might be described as having
bunged up or referred to as "on the bung" or "gone bung". Bung is also used to describe an individual who is pretending to be hurt; such individual is said to be "bunging it on".
Though often thought of as an Aboriginal word,
didgeridoo (a well known wooden ceremonial musical instrument) is probably an
onomatopaoeic word of Western invention. It has also been suggested that it may have an
Irish derivation.
Terms for people
Australians use a variety of terms to refer to people. These terms may indicate such things as the person's ethnicity, the place where the person resides, the social status of the person, the person's behaviour, etc. Many of these words occur in other English dialects, especially
New Zealand English, whilst others are unique to Australian English.
Proper nouns
It is also common amongst Australians to shorten the names of places, people, companies, etc. Some of these terms are regional others are in relatively widespread use. Many terms derive from company or brand names others derive from rhyming slang or the use of diminutives.
Clothing
Australians use many unique terms to relate to items of clothing. Some of these terms are
regional. Many derive from company or brand names others derive from
rhyming slang.
Food and drink
Where foodstuffs are concerned, Australian English tends to be more closely related to the
British vocabulary, for example the term
biscuit is the traditional and common term rather than the
American terms
cookie and
cracker. As had been the case with many terms,
cookie is recognised and understood by Australians, and occasionally used, especially among younger generations.
In Australia the term
chips is used for what Americans call
French Fries, as with British English. In Australia
chips is also used for what are called
crisps in the UK, this second usage also being the American English term for crisps. The distinction is sometimes made through the adjective
hot. The term
French Fries is understood and sometimes used by Australians. US restaurants such as McDonalds continue to use the term
French Fries in Australia.
In a few cases such as
zucchini,
snow pea and
eggplant, Australian English uses the same terms as American English, whereas the British use the equivalent French terms
courgette,
mangetout and
aubergine. This is possibly due to a fashion that emerged in mid-
19th Century Britain of adopting French nouns for foodstuffs, and hence the usage changed in Britain while the original terms were preserved in the (ex-)colonies.
There are also occasions when Australians use words or terms which are not common in other forms of English. For example, Australia uses the botanical name
capsicum for what the Americans would call (red or green)
bell peppers and the British (red or green) peppers. Perhaps this is in order to contrast table pepper (
berries of
genus Piper) from so-called "hot peppers" (larger fruits of genus
Capsicum).
Australians use the term
rockmelon where North Americans would use the term
cantaloupe, although in Victoria and Tasmania both terms are used.
In Australian English,
dried fruits are given different names according to their variety, and generally
raisins (grapes) are largest,
sultanas (grapes) are intermediate, while
currants are smallest.
In Australian English
tomato sauce (Often known simply as 'Sauce') is the name given to what is known as
ketchup in other dialects. However, Ketchup with its slightly sweeter taste, is still sold in many grocery stores and is common in fast food outlets such as McDonalds. Other sauces made from tomatoes are generally referred to by names related to their uses, such as
barbecue and pasta sauce.
Served coffee beverages are given unique descriptive names such as
flat white, for an
espresso with milk. Other terms include
short black, (
espresso) and
long black, (espresso diluted with water, similar to an
Americano in the U.S.). Since the mid-
1980s other varieties of coffee have also become popular, although these have generally been known by names used in
North America and/or
Europe.
As in British English, the colourless, slightly lemon-flavoured, carbonated drink known in North America and elsewhere under brand names such as
Sprite and
7 Up is called
lemonade, while the more strongly-flavoured drink known as lemonade in North America that's typically made of lemon juice and sugar is sometimes referred to as
lemon squash, or sometimes
traditional lemonade or
club lemon, particularly in carbonated form.
The carbonated drink commonly called
sarsaparilla in Australia is a type of
root beer, named after the sarsarparilla root from which root beer is made. However, the taste is quite different, to the point that they may be considered two completely different products. This may be due to a difference in the production process.
Australians also often refer to
McDonald's restaurants as
Maccas. The corporation itself sometimes refers to itself informally as
Maccas in advertising.
Cheap, unbranded Australian wine is called "
cleanskin" wine, after the term for unbranded cattle. Cheap
cask wine is often referred to as goon (diminutive slang for flagon), and the plastic cask is referred to as a "goon sack", "goon bag" or "goony".
A portable cooler; usually made of metal, plastic and/or polystyrene foam; is called an
esky. This is a
genericised trademark from the trade name
Esky.
Processed pork
A common foodstuff known in some countries as
Baloney or as pork
luncheon meat is known by different names in different regions of Australia .
Beer glasses
Not only have there been a wide variety of measures in which
beer is served in
pubs in Australia, the names of these glasses differ from one area to another. However, the range of glasses has declined greatly in recent years.
Sport
To
barrack, invariably a sporting team (typically
rugby league or
Australian rules football), for example, in
Australian English means
to hoot or cheer in support of something. Identical to the US "root". (Note that the word "root" in Australia is coarse slang for sexual intercourse.) For example: "who do you barrack for?" Almost the exact opposite of the (now rare) British usage of barrack, that's to
denigrate: to jeer or hoot against something, such as a sporting team.
In Australia a
table grouping teams according to their position in a league is called a
ladder.
Cricket
The game of
cricket is immensely popular in Australia and has contributed slang terms to Australian English. Some of this is shared with rival cricketing nations, like the
English and the
New Zealanders.
Australians can be
bowled over (taken by surprise),
stumped (nonplussed) or
clean bowled or alternatively
hit for six (completely defeated). When answering questions, one can
play a (or a ) (give a non-committal answer) or
let that one through to the keeper or
shoulder arms (dodge the question), particularly if they're
on a sticky wicket (in a tight situation). The questioner in turn can
send down a
bouncer, a
googly, a
flipper or a
yorker (difficult questions to varying degrees). Alternatively, the question could be a
long hop or a
dolly — an easy question that person being questioned can use to his or her advantage. The expression "to bat for the other side" is commonly used in respect of gay men or lesbians, and isn't necessarily a pejorative.
Football
The
word football or its shortened form
footy is used by Australians for several different codes of football or the ball used to play any of them. Australians generally fall into four camps when it comes to the use of the word.
In the states of Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, the word "football" (or more commonly, "footy") usually refers to Australian rules football (also known simply as Australian football or "Aussie Rules"). In these states there's little or no popular differentiation between the two kinds of rugby football.
In the states of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, most people refer to rugby league simply as "football" or "footy" for short, or "League" (after the National Rugby League governing body). Rugby union is known as "rugby", "union" or "rahrah". Australian rules is often known in these areas as "AFL" (a name which, strictly speaking, refers to the main governing body, the Australian Football League).
In areas in which all three codes are popular, especially the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory and the Riverina (south-western NSW), the word "football" is ambiguous, and the names "league", "rugby" and "AFL" (or just "rules") are used, to avoid confusion.
Association football is generally known as soccer in Australia. In 2005, the governing body changed its name to Football Federation Australia. Other media sources (especially in New South Wales and Queensland) now also refer to the game as "football".
In Australia, American football, which has a small following, is known as gridiron.
Players, officials and followers of Australian rules football, have devised many unique concepts, terms, slang and nicknames. Some of these, such as footy, Grand Final and State of Origin have entered wider Australian usage, even among followers of other codes of football.
See also
List of nicknames used in Australian rules
Vehicles
Work vehicles
In Australian English the term ute, short for utility vehicle, refers to a passenger car-like vehicle with a tray back, possibly with sides, a rear gate and/or a removable cover or any small truck. Australian-made Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon utes are based on family car chassis, and are normally much smaller than current North American pickup trucks. The term is generally consistent with pickup in most countries. However, all imported pickups are also known as utes in Australia.
Truck (rather than lorry) has been the only term for heavy goods vehicles in Australia since World War II. Four-wheel drive, which is often abbreviated in writing as 4WD, is the usual name for the class of vehicles known elsewhere as SUVs, as well as utes with 4WD capability. In contrast to American English, neither utes nor passenger 4WD vehicles are usually regarded as being trucks in Australia. Four-wheel drives that are used only in the city and never for off-road driving are commonly given derogatory nicknames based on the names of wealthier suburbs of Australia's various state capital cities, the most common of these is Toorak Tractors, referring to the Melbourne suburb of Toorak.
There are a variety of terms for large and/or articulated trucks, depending on the type of cargo area, size/length, number of axles/wheels and so on. A single trailer articulated truck (typically with 32 wheels in Australia) is known as a semi-trailer or semi (not /'se.mɑe/ as in the USA), an articulated truck with two trailers (typically with 50 tyres) is known as a B-Double (the lead trailer has a fifth wheel supporting the second trailer), or Double Semi. The largest of all articulated trucks are road trains, common on outback highways, which have at least three trailers and often more. In all articulated truck configurations, the powered vehicle at the front is invariably known as a prime mover.
Police vehicles
The panel vans used by police forces are known in most parts of Australia as paddywagons or as black marias (although this term is also used to refer to the vans used to transport prisoners between prison and courts), in accordance with international usage. However, in Melbourne as in other parts of Victoria they're often also called divvy vans, an abbreviation of the archaic Victoria Police jargon divisional van. The staccato chant of "You're going home in the back of a divvy van" (followed by clapping) can occasionally be heard when a crowd is nearby one of these vehicles, or when a person is led away by the police at a sporting or other large event. In Sydney, some people refer to similar vehicles as bull wagons and in the Riverina they're known as bundy wagons.
Large special purpose police vans, generally on truck chassis, which have facilities to test the blood alcohol levels of suspected drunk drivers, are known as booze buses.
Military slang
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is made up of the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Each have their own distinct traditions but share a defence force culture. This culture includes Australian military slang. Some words, such as digger, meaning a soldier, have become widely used by Australians in general. However, most slang used in the ADF is restricted to its personnel, or is widely understood outside Australia.
Old, declining or expired slang
Many distinctive Australian words have been driven to or near to extinction in recent decades under the homogenising influence of mass media and imported culture, because of changes in fashion, or have fallen into disuse as society changes. Those who like or use these words regret their passing but informal vocabulary is by nature ephemeral. Others who use these words do so ironically.
Rhyming slang
A common feature of traditional Australian English was rhyming slang, based on Cockney rhyming slang and imported by migrants from London in the 19th century. For example "Captain Cook" rhymes with "look", so to "have a captain cook" or to "have a captain" means to "have a look".
Some Australian rhyming slang is very localised, for example, a reference to the Sydney racetrack "Warwick Farm" (arm), or a former Melbourne radio station "3KZ" (head).
Rhyming slang was often used to create euphemistic terms for obscene words. In recent years this feature of Australian English has declined, once again due in part to the Americanisation of popular culture, as well as the passage of time and the impermanent nature of slang.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Australian English Vocabulary'.
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