| Aussie Words |
Definitions |
Comments |
| earbash |
Non-stop talk |
|
| eastern states |
The rest of Australia, according to someone in Western Australia |
|
| Enzedder |
New zealander |
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| esky |
Large insulated box for keeping beer cool |
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| evo |
Evening |
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| ewe |
Female sheep, corruption is 'yoe' or similar |
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| exy |
Expensive |
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| fair crack of the whip! |
Fair go! |
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| fair dinkum |
Genuine or honest |
|
| fair go |
A chance ("give a bloke a fair go") |
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| fairy floss |
Candy floss, cotton candy |
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| FIGJAM |
F*ck I'm good; just ask me |
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| financial |
To be flush with cash |
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| FJ |
Most revered Holden car |
|
| flake |
Shark meat, used in fish and chips |
|
| flaming |
All-purpose intensifying adjective |
(A safer "f" word) |
| flash |
Very fancy, overly fashionable ('lairy') |
"Flash as a rat with a gold tooth" |
| flat out |
As fast as possible |
|
| floater |
Meat pie floating in pea soup, viewed by Australians either as a great delicacy or as a great emetic |
|
| flog |
Sell; steal |
This once meant to pawn, back in the '50s/early '60s - I remember people baulking at my use of the sense steal … |
| footy |
Australian Rules football |
|
| fossick |
To hunt for gemstones |
Or gold … or any other mineral ... |
| fossicking |
Searching, rummaging ("fossicking through the kitchen drawers") |
|
| freckle |
Anus |
|
| from arsehole to breakfast |
All over the place |
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| fruit loop |
Fool |
|
| full |
Drunk |
|
| furphy |
A rumour or a false story |
|
| g'day |
A greeting |
|
| gaffer |
(Lesser) Boss … usually a supervisor or shed boss |
N. English dialect - US usage is head lighting tech on film set … thus "gaffer tape" - specially made to hang film lights from rough surfaces |
| galah |
Noisy parrot, thus noisy idiot |
|
| game |
Brave |
|
| gander |
Have a look |
|
| gaol |
Australian and British variant spelling of "jail" |
|
| garbo |
Garbage collector |
|
| garbo, garbologist |
Municipal garbage collector |
|
| gibber, gibby |
Stony desert (that's originally a 'gibber plain' or 'gibber country - 'gibber' i |
Sydney region Aboriginal word for stone (Dharuk - 'giba') |
| gidgee |
Rough, dry country, characterized by tough acacia scrub called gidgee |
Aboriginal (Yuwaalaraay) word for 'spear wood' |
| give it a burl |
Try it, have a go |
|
| give it away |
Give up |
|
| goanna |
Australian monitor lizard |
Adaptation of S. American 'iguana' |
| going "troppo" |
Going tropical; laid-back and fun-loving; insane |
|
| good oil, good gits |
Useful information, a good idea, the truth |
Good guts? |
| good on ya! |
Well done! |
|
| good on you |
Good for you, well done |
|
| good possie |
Advantageous position |
|
| grazier |
Large-scale sheep or cattle farmer |
|
| greenhide |
Tough, untanned leather |
Equivalent to US "rawhide" |
| greenie |
Environmentalist |
|
| grizzle |
To complain |
|
| grog |
General term for alcohol, but typically beer |
Interestingly, it was originally RN term for rum, watered down to prevent sailors saving their ration up for a bender (after Admiral Grogham) |
| grouse |
Very good, unreal |
|
| gum sucker |
Resident of Victoria |
|
| gumtree |
Eucalyptus |
Smoothbarked eucalypt, not a stringybark or messmate |
| gun |
Champion (shearer) |
|
| Gunyah |
Aboriginal temporary shelter (also gunya, guneah, gunney &c) |
Aboriginal (Dharuk): 'ganya' |
| gutzer |
Some plans don't work out or to have an accident (to come a gutzer) |
|
| gyno |
Gynaecologist |
|
| handle |
Beer glass with a handle |
|
| hard yacka |
Hard work |
|
| hatter |
Person living alone and rough in the bush - maybe crazy |
"Mad as a HATTER" |
| heaps |
A lot |
|
| hire |
To rent, as "to hire a car" |
|
| his nibs |
The boss |
|
| homestead |
Residance of a station (ranch or farm) owner or manager |
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| hooley |
Wild party |
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| hooly-dooly |
An expression of surprise |
|
| hoon |
Idiot, hooligan, yahoo |
|
| hooroo |
Goodbye |
|
| hotel |
Often just a pub |
|
| hottie |
Hot water bottle |
|
| how are ya? |
Standard greeting |
|
| hq |
Second most revered Holden car |
|
| hump |
To carry |
|
| humping bluey |
Carrying a swag, travelling rough and light (looking for work - or tucker) |
|
| humpy |
Temporary, makeshift dwelling (originally Aboriginal shelter, gunyah) |
Aboriginal (Jagara): 'yumbi |
| icy pole |
Popsicle, lollypop |
Ice block, where I came from |
| identity |
Celebrity |
|
| iffy |
Doubtful, questionable |
|
| illywacker |
A con man who preyed on the gullible at country shows/fairs |
|
| in full feather |
In fine health |
|
| in yer boot! |
An expression of disagreement (archaic) |
|
| it's a goer |
Something that will definitely occur |
|
| Jack Shay (Jack Shea) |
Quart pot, metal drinking vessel / container |
Rhymes (to the Irish) with tea (pot) |
| jack-in-the-box |
Person who can't sit still |
|
| jackaroo |
A male station hand (a station is a big farm/grazing property) |
In station life, Jackaroo has long meant an Englishman getting 'colonial experience' (often not paid … but ate with the magager, not the men!) [Originally, ie very early colonial, it meant a white man living beyond the boundary of settlement - possibly Aboriginal word 'dhugai-iu', (Jagara)] |
| jillaroo |
A female station hand |
|
| jingoes! |
Exclamation of wonder |
|
| jocks |
Men's or boys' underpants |
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| Joe Blake |
Snake (rhyming) |
|
| Joe Bloggs |
The average citizen |
|
| joey |
Baby kangaroo, still in the pouch |
Originally baby possum - trans. to kangaroo, then any young marsupial … eventually comes to mean child! |
| johnny cake |
Small, thin, loaf of damper (bush bread) |
Trans. from US flat oat cake |
| journo |
Journalist |
|
| jumbuck |
Sheep |
Probably an Aboriginal word for 'cloud' or 'mist' (a distant mob of sheep?) |
| jumped-up |
Full of self-importance; arrogant |
|
| kanga or kangaroo |
Shoe |
|
| keen as mustard |
Enthusiastic |
|
| kelpie |
Australian sheepdog originally bred from Scottish collie |
Breed is descended from champion short-haired collie named 'Kelpie' |
| kerb |
Alternative Australian and British spelling of "curb" |
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