| Aussie Words |
Definitions |
Comments |
| t'other side |
The northern island (mainland Australia) to a Tasmanian |
Of course, they're 'down under down under …" |
| tack (hard) |
Work (hard) |
Trans. From sailor's 'hard tack' - tough, hard biscuit? |
| take away food |
Take-out food |
|
| tall poppies |
Achievers, often a disparaging term |
Tall poppy (syndrome)? |
| tally |
The number of shorn sheep attributed to individual shearers in a day |
Transf. - a good result |
| tank |
Dam or reservoir, as well as constructed water storage container |
|
| tar |
Stockholm tar, applied as first aid to sheep cut during shearing |
|
| tar boy |
Shearing shed hand patching up cut sheep |
|
| tariff |
Rate |
|
| tart |
Once a contraction of 'sweetheart', now more derogatory |
|
| Taswegian |
A person from Tasmania |
|
| tea |
Evening meal |
|
| technicolour yawn |
Vomit |
|
| tee up |
Organise or arrange |
|
| telly |
The television |
|
| thingo |
Thing, whatchamacallit, whomajigger, hooza meebob, doo velacki, thingamajig, wha |
|
| this arvo |
This afternoon |
|
| thongs |
Rubber sandals, flip-flops |
|
| ticker |
Watch |
|
| tickets, to have on oneself |
To have a high opinion of oneself |
|
| tiger cat |
Carnivorous marsupial, about domestic cat size |
Related to extinct Tasmamian Tiger |
| tinny |
Can of beer, small aluminium boat |
|
| toad-skin |
£1 banknote, from its green colour |
Australian banknotes are each of different colours (and sizes) |
| togs |
Swimming costume (Queensland, Victoria) |
|
| tongs |
(Old-fashioned) Hand shears |
Suggested by spring hinge (B-bow)? |
| too right! |
Absolutely! |
|
| top end |
Far north of Australia |
|
| top ender |
Resident of the Northern Territory |
|
| trap |
Policeman, (later) mounted trooper |
|
| triangle |
Flogging frame |
In convict settlements, 1788 - (~) 1860 |
| trooper |
Policeman (usually) on horseback |
|
| trots |
Runny stools, the shits |
|
| truckie |
Truck driver |
|
| true blue |
Dinkum, patriotic |
|
| tucker |
Food |
|
| tucker-bag |
Food bag |
|
| turps |
Turpentine or alcoholic drink |
So-called 'Methylated Spirits' no longer is denatured with methyl alcohol, which is merely poisonous ... now uses turpentine, which is sickening |
| turps, hit the |
Go on a drinking binge |
|
| twit |
Fool or idiot |
|
| two-pot screamer |
Someone who can't hold his liquor |
|
| two-up |
Traditional Australian heads/tails gambling game, played with 2 coins |
|
| tyre |
Australian and British spelling of "tire" |
|
| underdaks |
Underwear |
|
| uni |
University |
|
| unit |
Flat, apartment |
|
| up a gumtree |
In a quandary |
|
| up north |
New South Wales and Queensland, according to someone in Victoria |
|
| up oneself |
Have a high opinion of oneself - "he's really up himself" |
|
| up the duff |
Pregnant |
|
| ute |
Utility truck or vehicle |
Australian 'invention' - Ford Australia (1928?) |
| vedgies |
Vegetables |
|
| vee dub |
Volkswagen |
|
| veg out |
Relax in front of the TV (like a vegetable) |
|
| Vegemite |
Popular vegetable extract used as sandwich spread |
Yeast extract - made from the 'lees' of beer-making! |
| vejjo |
Vegetarian |
|
| velvet |
Highly profitable or advantageous |
|
| waddy |
Wooden club (waddi, waddie, wody, woodah &c) |
Aboriginal word (Dharuk): wadi = tree, stick of wood |
| waffle |
Nonsense |
|
| wag |
To skip school or work |
|
| waggin' school |
Playing truant |
|
| waler |
Bloke from New South Wales (also NSW breed of tough bush horse) |
Not 'whaler' |
| walkabout |
Lengthy walk away from it all |
|
| walkabout, it's gone |
It's lost, can't be found |
|
| wallaby track, on the |
To wander from place to place in search of work (archaic) |
|
| walloper |
Copper, policeman |
|
| waltz matilda |
To carry a swag |
Auf den walz (mit Mathilde) Mathilde is blanket roll or tool roll in German |
| wattle |
Acacia, common Australian species of (typically) shrub |
The original wattle - so named because it was used to build wattle & daub dwellings in Sydney's first settlement, was not acacia, but callicoma serratifolia, which had yellow globular flowers and serrated leaves. Early settlers were no botanists and they thought similar acacias were same genus … |
| weatherboard |
Wooden house |
Strictly: a specific pattern of lapped horizontal wooden cladding |
| West Island |
Australia, to a New Zealander |
|
| Wet, the |
Rainy season in northern Australia |
|
| wether |
Castrated male sheep |
|
| whack |
Fair share, agreed deal |
Turns up in a few songs - old English word |
| wharfie |
Dockworker |
(Stevedore) |
| whinge |
Complain and carry on unnecessarily |
|
| whips (of) |
Lots (of) |
|
| white ant (noun) |
Termite |
|
| white ant (verb) |
Undermine or sabotage |
|
| white pointers |
Topless (female) sunbathers or type of large shark |
|
| whomajigger |
Term for person or thing whose actual name one can't remember |
|
| willy-nilly |
Small dust twister or erratic |
More commonly "willy willy" - a couple of citiatons of williy nilly in Aus. Nat'l Dict. Aboriginal words (Yinji-Barndi) - 'wili wili' |
| Wimmera |
West Victorian region (characterised by wimmera rye grass) |
|
| wobbly |
Disturbing, unpredictable behaviour, as in "throw a wobbly" |
|
| wog |
Flu or trivial illness |
|
| wog |
Mediterranean or Middle European migrant - derogatory |
|
| Wolseleys |
Machine shears (inventor, Fred Wolseley, went on to make cars … in England) |
(Assisted by his shears mechanic … Herbert Austin … who then made his own cars!) |
| wombat |
Somebody who eats, roots and leaves (see also root) |
|
| woomera |
Stick used by Aborigines to throw spears |
|
| woop woop |
Invented name for any small unimportant town - "he lives in Woop Woop" |
|
| wowser |
Straight-laced person, prude, puritan, spoilsport |
|
| XXXX |
Pronounced Four X, brand of beer made in Queensland |
And there's no truth to the story that Queenslanders just can't spell BEER |
| yabber |
Talk (a lot) |
Probably Aboriginal … and/or pidgin from jabber |
| yabby |
Small freshwater crayfish |
|
| yahoo |
Noisy and unruly person |
|
| yahooing |
Boisterous behaviour |
|
| yakka, yakker |
Hard work, an Aboriginal term |
(Yagari language -'yaga') |
| yank |
American regardless of location |
|
| yank tank |
An American car |
|
| yankee shout |
A round of drinks in which everyone pays his own |
|
| yeo |
Ewe, female sheep |
Scots dialect … also ewie or yowie (not the aboriginal forest monster!) |
| yewy |
U-turn in traffic ("chuck a yewy at the next traffic lights") |
I've always spelled it: U-ey … but I'm a bit of a pedant! |
sj