Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Feb 20 - 05:18 PM

Having repatriated almost 23 years ago, "stoush" rings a bell but, in the suburbs of Sydney, at least, it was more likely to be a "blue" that ABCD nearly ended up in.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Mr Red
Date: 05 Feb 20 - 05:10 PM

"stushie",
I have heard the Scotttish comedian Fred MacCauley use the phrase eg
"That is what in Scotland we call a stoushie"
in the context of an argument, and probably with reference to politics.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 04 Feb 20 - 03:43 PM

Just with regard to Helen's earlier posting about being in the wrong place &c.; many, many years ago, when about eighteen, I was walking along a long, straight avenue in the West End of Glasgow, about seven in the evening, when I saw someone on the same side of the (lengthy) pavement making his slightly unsteady but very determined way towards me (or, at least, I was going to encounter him in less than a minute's time). What made that problematic was the way he was punctuating his gait with a regular thumping of his right fist into his left hand, a sort of malevolent metronome. I crossed the road, diagonally, as if I had always intended to do this anyway. He saw me. No, there wasn't any stoushie, or even "stushie", let alone a "stouch" as I'll spell it for the moment. There was, however, a loud enquiry - rhetorical in nature - and a resounding statement of obvious fact: "Ye think Ah widnae, son? Ah'm just in the mood!"

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Feb 20 - 01:26 PM

Helen, we were talking about stoushie, not stoush.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Hagman
Date: 04 Feb 20 - 05:48 AM

"Please be upstanding for..." is still very common at formal weddings in Oz, in my experience.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 04 Feb 20 - 04:55 AM

Guest DHB, thanks. In Australia, I've mainly heard it in the context of "Please be upstanding for the National Anthem."

I thought "Please give it up for..." meaning "Please applaud" was also Australian, but the internet tells me it's American in origin. But it became popular in the States after I left, so I never heard it until I came to Australia.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: GUEST,DHB
Date: 04 Feb 20 - 02:46 AM

Guest Gerry, 'Please be upstanding' is used in the UK as a very formal way of saying 'Please stand up', as in 'Please be upstanding for the toast to our founder' at a formal dinner-with-speeches. It may be falling out of use. I don't have to go to that sort of do anymore. Thank goodness.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 01:54 PM

Well to me a stoush indicates that there are people out deliberately looking for a fight and inventing an excuse to attack, and even in some cases to attack whoever happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 01:38 PM

What a coincidence!

I was only teasing about the Victorians.

Buachaill, I had the same thought about the word 'stushie' - namely that it seeks to make something serious (a fight among grown men) seem trivial.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 05:01 AM

Ringing a bell, Leeneia, before I sat down to write WalkaboutsVerse, as well as standing up to try and get to know the world, I read a fair bit of poetry, prose and theory - including a book called "Writing Professionally" by one Gary Disher.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 31 Jan 20 - 07:10 PM

So Napoleon's Marechal Ney was an Alsatian(woof)? Just hopping in re. Scots "stushie", which does indeed have the signification above. However, and I've lived in Scotland my lifetime, in my experience this word is only ever used on Television, and specifically in News Programmes concerning disagreements in what's called the Scottish Parliament . It's almost as if those who control the British Broadcasting Corporation wish to diminish the importance of any argument, or give the impression that Scots politicians are only concerned with minor affairs, but that would be a devious, colonialist ploy - wouldn't it?

Mind you, different parts of every country have variations and local idioms, so I may be wrong here; any Scots from elsewhere certainly need no encouragement to add to our knowledge. "It makes it interesting"!

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 31 Jan 20 - 05:57 PM

Victoria is the southern state on the east coast of the Australian mainland. Often the Victorians are referred to as Mexicans by NSW people and the Banana-benders in Queensland.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 31 Jan 20 - 04:48 PM

How can author Garry Disher be a Victorian when he wasn't born until 1949?

We too say "quick on the uptake."

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 31 Jan 20 - 04:31 PM

"Please be upstanding" seems to be Australian for "please stand up".

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 31 Jan 20 - 03:56 AM

No, I've never heard anyone use uptake in that way here.

We would say to take or pick up a leaflet.

I've heard "quick on the uptake", meaning understanding a concept quickly.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Mr Red
Date: 31 Jan 20 - 03:32 AM

One thing I remember from NZ was the word uptake as in "uptake an information leaflet". A Lalans Scottish phrase that in English English would be "pick up a ..........". I reasoned it was from the sheep farmers that migrated, so by inference, my question: is the word common in OZ?

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Hagman
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 07:59 PM

He's a Victorian, so his fame may not have travelled interstate, if not worldwide.... we like to keep good things to ourselves down here. :-)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Disher

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: JennieG
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 04:27 PM

Stoush may be older than 1893 - but that was the first time it appeared in print, so it can be definitely dated from about that time.

We always had books by Garry Disher in the school libraries where I worked as he has written a lot of YA books. It was years before I realised he also wrote adult books.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 01:25 PM

Thanks leeneia,

You could be right about his heart not being in it. In fact, as far as I recall I have never heard of the author even when I was a librarian in a public library, so he wasn't an author that the customers asked after.

Thanks for the info on skittles Phil & Mr Red. I know there would be a lot of skill in playing it and I can think of worse ways to spend your time. I think the darts players used to be very involved in their matches, but we don't see much of that these days here either. A bit of a dying art here.

In a very brief Google I saw a reference to the word stoush being brought back here by soldiers who were involved in the Boer War, but I saw another reference to "a Scottish term stushie or stooshie for a commotion, rumpus or row". (A row is pronounced like cow, and means an argument - usually heated or loud - or a fight.)

The difficulty with tracking down Australian words and language is that we have influences on our language from all the dialect areas of Britain, and also from possibly every other language on earth. It makes it interesting.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 11:54 AM

Helen, the novel is called 'Cold, Bright Lights.' It's not the best I ever read. There was some good detecting of cold cases, but in the middle came a custody case which was so blatantly unfair that I said to myself, "Wait a minute. The author put this in here simply to take up space and to twist my heart."

The author's bio said he has written 50 books, and I suspect his heart's not in it anymore.

Thanks for the link, Walkie.

Jennnie, that's interesting about stoush dating to 1893. If forced, I would have guessed that the word was Polish or Czech and came to Australia with refugees after WWII. Not so.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Mr Red
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 11:13 AM

Mr Red can't. But it is serious. The GF's brother is in a skittles league. When I lived in Malvern and was in a pub where they were playing, they had a song or two that all sang to celebrate a strike, or a win or something. The pin in the centre was called the kingpin. 9 Pins in a diamond oriented square, and a big wooden ball that could pass through all pins without touching.

In Nothamptonshire they played with smaller pins on a table and threw a "cheese" at the pins. Dedicated room, but not that long. In Leicestershire they used what looked like an old pin instead.

Dielects in the art of skittles!

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Newport Boy
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 10:32 AM

Helen, for an example of how seriously skittles is taken, here's one division of the Stroud league. I'm sure Mr Red can give you more information if you want!

Phil

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 06:33 PM

leeneia, before this thread fades away, I'm interested to know which Garry Disher novel you were reading. I have to admit I have never read any of his books but I like mystery/thrillers as long as there isn't too much gratuitous violence. I'll check them out at the library.

It's been fun. We can help you out on the next Aussie book or movie.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 05:47 PM

You can see an old scanned photo of a weatherboard attached to my poem "Walkabout with my Pen" as it is where I headed off from on my many walkabouts.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 04:53 PM

According to my Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms (was being culled at the school library where I worked, and is a very handy book) "stoush" was first noted in print in 1893, so it's been around for a while. Used as a verb it means to punch, but it mostly seems to be used as a noun - "he's up for a stoush". It's pronounced to rhyme with "ouch".

leeneia, our weatherboard would be like the American clapboard siding.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 04:36 PM

Oops. Rubbish bin is a 55 litre (14 gallon) round barrel shaped plastic or metal bin about 2.5 feet high maybe, but we also have taller bins on wheels known as wheelie bins (of course) which are about 240 litres (63 gallons), 3.5 feet high and have about 1.5 feet square openings.

Again, depending on the time frame in the novel, if it's an older time e,g, pre about the late '70's then it would be the barrel type. It would be easier to skittle the smaller ones but depending how fast a car was going, it would be possible to skittle the larger ones.

I stand corrected, Newport Boy. The other way around!! It makes sense. Except over/down here only kids play skittles. The concept of skittling something is the same, though.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 03:46 PM

Thanks for the definitions. I believe it would be hard for a car to actually skittle a rubbish bin, because the bin is too big. Probably he merely knocked it sideways.

I think we have a housing material like weatherboard, but the boards go vertically, not horizontally. I believe it's gone out of style. It seems to me that the author of this book pays a lot attention to houses and how they are built. Perhaps he dreamed of being an architect.

While we're chatting, I'll mention that the new building material for small buildings seems to be stucco - a kind of thin, beige cement. New neighborhoods here have beige shopping centers, beige houses and beige restaurants. We refer to all of it as Stuccoville.

Stoush is an interesting word. I wonder where that came from.
=================
That's the end of the Australian words in this book. It's been fun.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Newport Boy
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 05:55 AM

he reversed quickly, skittling a rubbish bin (skittling) - skittles is a backyard version of ten pin bowling. Smaller pins, smaller ball, used mostly by kids.

Wrong way round, Helen. Ten-pin bowling is a tarted-up version of skittles for lazy people who can't walk the length of the alley to re-set the pins. Skittles is not a game aimed at kids - in Gloucestershire and Somerset it's played in leagues by deadly serious adults. Most country pubs have, or used to have, a skittle alley.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 09:44 PM

sandshoes without socks - old fashioned white tennis shoes with a canvas upper and rubber sole - not the fancy-dancy Nike types of sneakers.

a cream weatherboard (house) with a green front door (weatherboard) - a weatherboard house has long horizontal planks of wood on the outside, which is usually painted a lightish colour and the trim, e.g. window frames, door frames, gutters etc would be a different slightly darker colour with the door painted usually a darker or brighter accent colour. Three colours altogether.

he reversed quickly, skittling a rubbish bin (skittling) - skittles is a backyard version of ten pin bowling. Smaller pins, smaller ball, used mostly by kids. So to be skittled is to be knocked over quickly and spectacularly.

ugly mega-churches and businesses for cashed-up bogans (bogans?) - possibly the nearest U.S. equivalent would be trailer trash. A lot of hoons probably belong in the bogan category as well. Hoons would be cashed up enough to afford a car. Some bogans have come up in the world but are still proud of their bogan origins.

the Catholic op shop behind the Coles parking lot (op shop, and by the way, what kind of place is Coles?)

op shop = opportunity shop, charity shop, thrift store, usually specialising in used clothing and kitchen ware.

Coles is a national supermarket chain on the same scale as Woolworths.

young, bright, up for a stoush - a stoush is a fight, usually physical but usually involving a lot of shouting too. If you are up for a stoush you are actively looking for a fight.

"We were on our way back and we saw a booze bus, and in a panic I hid the gun." (booze bus?)

Booze bus is the Police Force's Random Breath Testing (RBT) mobile van. They set up on roadsides and pull drivers over to test for alcohol i.e. booze on their breath or drugs.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 08:45 PM

Americans almost never say Howdy. It's obsolete. Thanks for the links, Walkie. I enjoyed the utes.

Thanks for restumping. Time for more words.

sandshoes without socks

a cream weatherboard (house) with a green front door (weatherboard)

he reversed quickly, skittling a rubbish bin (skittling)

ugly mega-churches and businesses for cashed-up bogans (bogans?)

the Catholic op shop behind the Coles parking lot (op shop, and by the way, what kind of place is Coles?)

young, bright, up for a stoush

"We were on our way back and we saw a booze bus, and in a panic I hid the gun." (booze bus?)

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 05:59 PM

A company in Sydney offers restumping, so does one in Newcastle, Helen.

Wikipedia on 6 o'clock swill in Australia & New Zealand

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 01:43 PM

Sorry, I forgot about restumping.

I'm assuming it's when the piers of stone or wood or concrete under a wooden house are starting to break down or lean over or settle unevenly into the ground and it affects the floor level in the house, so then the piers or stumps need to be replaced or repaired.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 12:18 PM

Pick Up Trucks

V

Utes

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 12:11 PM

Good, very good observations. But what about restumping?

Mr. Red, I have seen the French term gite in books set in Brittany, but I never would have connected gite and agistment in a thousand years. In America, if we don't own land, we board a horse, just like sending a child to boarding school.

About bench and counter - funny, it never occurred to me before that our kitchen counters must be named for the flat surface where a merchant counts his money.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 04:55 AM

BS: more Australian words Which refers to another thread BS: words from Australia

OZ ........ "G'day"
NZ ........ "Or yea, G'day"
UK ........ "Hello"
US ........ "Howdy"

4 countries separated by a common tongue!

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 04:31 AM

Four Yorkshiremen sketch from Monty Python in the 70s or has it been around longer? - definitely longer. The sketch, probably on the Frost report (or other Frosty production), included Marty Feldman, and probably Frosty himself.

Old English giste, gite, a "lying place"). cf modern French gite - B&B/pension certainly a lying place.

In NZ Smoko, Spello was not only a song, but it was a tea/coffee/beer break (spello) and time for a ciggie ie smoko.

The five o'clock swill was a relic of the NZ alcohol laws. Pubs open to 5pm so people leaving from work rushed to the pub and downed as many pints as there was time for. Fridays at work was traditionally the time for getting beers out of the fridge before going home.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 03:20 AM

"Grew up in a hole in the road" is that related to Four Yorkshiremen sketch from Monty Python in the 70s or has it been around longer?

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Karen Impola
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 12:01 AM

In American, the work surface on top of your kitchen cabinets is called a "counter". You can specify "kitchen counter" or call it a "countertop" as well.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: JennieG
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 11:38 PM

Helen, several years ago we were walking with friends at Gulgong during their new year folk festival when a local bloke in his hotted-up ute drove past with illegal lights underneath glowing away in the night. We laughed and said something about "hoons", which amused our German friend Ingrid mightily - in German, "hoon" is hen!

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 11:31 PM

Fibro is fibrous cement sheet which contained asbestos. Houses and housing estates built by the government from after World War II for people on the dole/welfare etc used to be all built with fibro. The house designs were all much the same. Rows and rows of them. Now in hindsight, we know how dangerous asbestos is, for both the builders or renovators but also the people demolishing old houses.

Backyard Blitz is a TV show where the celebrity gardeners and building tradies (tradesmen/tradespeople)come and do a really quick renovation of someone's garden. Usually someone who for some reason or another really deserves the makeover because they have been through hard times either emotionally, medically or financially.

"Grew up in a hole in the road" - I haven't heard that one but possibly meaning a dirt poor existence or even a nomadic family travelling around from town to town. Not sure.

Kitchen bench - LOL - no not a seat. We do call long seats benches but this is a benchtop. Maybe the translation to American language is "worktop"? Where you prepare food etc.

A street hoon, or just a hoon, is the bane of suburban existence. Those young blokes dangerously hooning around the streets in their loud fast cars with no thought for the safety of anyone in their path, and no respect in their interactions with other people. It's definitely an Aussie phenomenon but I expect it is in America too.

Their caps - these days it would be baseball caps worn backwards. That depends on the time that the book refers to, I suppose.

Tats are tattoos.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 10:27 PM

An old fibro place

Was she the Backyard Blitz type?

"I grew up in a hole in the road," he told her. In America, if a person has no manners, we ask "Were you raised in a barn?" I wonder if this is the equivalent.

His phone. It was on the kitchen bench. What item is this? It doesn't seem to be an actual bench, which is a thing people sit on.

two young men wearing street-hoon caps and tats

...the house was a wreck, badly in need of restumping. (restumping?)

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 10:24 PM

I didn't realise that slashing grass is an agricultural practice specifically for putting nutrients back in the ground until I Googled it. I didn't read it all, but basically the grass they are referring to is not your nice refined well-behaved suburban lawn, but big hefty strapping tall grass running amok out in the paddocks.

Triple fronted brick veneer = little boxes

Malvina Reynolds

Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 10:14 PM

so, is a ute a pickup truck? We couldn't call it a ute because the Utes are a western Native American tribe.

Behold, images of pickup trucks:
https://www.google.com/search?q=pick+up+truck+image&sxsrf=ACYBGNSh6fboU5dSM4eNHHBNy4PBAaj2dg:1580180472330&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=xXKx2Giv30DCRM%253A%252C_cNC_pbeIPoIGM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kR5ljTzDMJFi6ydkhvRRXVF3ybwZg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwinuO_9pqXnAhUCa80KHWH8D4sQ9QEwBnoECAUQLw#imgrc=xXKx2Giv30DCRM:

Do Australians slash grass because it has grown inconveniently long? Grishka, thanks for the link to Triodia. It's certainly an unusual plant.

Helen, the first thread was probably called 'Translations from the Australian.' The words came from a story set in Melborne and was more urban than the present book. If you want to search for it, click on my name for a list of my posts. I think it was 2-3 years ago.

I didn't realize that triple fronted brick veneer would be so-well known a phrase that I could google it. The houses don't look bad. Certainly they are a better design than the complex houses I call 'witches' cottages' which the builders are pushing near me. They have steep roofs and multiple seams to allow leaks to develop.

Time for more new words

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 06:11 PM

Basically the same as strimming, but on a larger scale maybe.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 05:39 PM

I forgot to say about grass slashing. It is what it sounds like. Not mowing with a mower, but slashing long grass with a slashing machine on the back of a tractor. In older times something like a scythe or a machete would probably have been used.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 05:28 PM

The curse of Google is that we can no longer showcase our superior knowledge, except for our expertise in Googling.

However, "grass slashing" works both ways in Australia: if you ever walked in fashionable soft sneakers through an area covered with triodia alias "spinifex", you will know what I mean.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 03:42 PM

Quite a long tradition (going back well before I repatriated - 1997) in Australia of youngsters hotting-up a ute with top-notch sound systems, etc.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 02:52 PM

leeneia, I must have missed part 1 of this topic. What was the title of that thread?

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Helen
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 02:19 PM

Compactus is/was the name of the shelving system in libraries which are on wheels and can be pushed together to save space. To go to the shelf you wanted to look at you had to hold a handle or roll a wheel one shelf at a time to move each one forward or back. Very clever system. Google "Compactus shelving system" for images or more info.

You're right, Reinhard, about the tray back on a ute. A ute i.e. utility truck, with a single or double cabin seating (two or four doors) can have a metal tray fitted to the back for carrying stuff.

Google "tray back ute" for images.

You are also right about the roo bar and agistment. My cousin used to have a small farm holding and she offered agistment for local people who did not have enough land to keep their own horse.

A roo - or kangaroo - bar can also be called a bull bar. Big tough blokes drive utes with bull bars, even if they live in the city and wouldn't know a country road or a bull if either one of them jumped up and bit them.

Google "triple-fronted brick veneer with a tiled roof" but be prepared to be shocked by the sheer ordinariness of those houses. LOL

If I'm not mistaken, "darling heart" may be from Irish influences or possibly British. It's an old fashioned expression. I don't think I have ever heard anyone say it in real time although I have read it in books - not Australian - and seen it on TV - again, not Australian productions.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Reinhard
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 01:55 PM

Compactus may be a plant it this suits the context, e.g. Euonymus Alatus Compactus (Burning Bush)

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Reinhard
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 01:48 PM

The tray is probably the load bed of a truck but I'm guessing here.

And I'd guess too that grass shlashing would be grass or lawn mowing.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Reinhard
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 01:44 PM

According to Wikipedia, "agistment originally referred specifically to the proceeds of pasturage in the king's forests. To agist is, in English law, to take cattle to graze, in exchange for payment (derived from the Old English giste, gite, a "lying place")."

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: Reinhard
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 01:40 PM

ute = utility vehicle = truck

roo bar = a metal bar or framework of metal bars on the front of a vehicle to protect it during collisions with (kanga)roos or cattle.

Subject: Folklore: translations from the Australian part 2
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 01:25 PM

Recently I read a detective novel by the Australian writer Garry Disher. (I'm American.) The book was no prize winner, but it seemed a fine source of interesting new Australian terms for us to talk about. Mudcatters, it seems, are always interested in the English language. So here they are, not all of them at once.

What do they mean? What emotions attend them? (e.g., are they vulgar, arch, juvenile, dated?) etc

============
"You're made for that, darling heart..." (Is darling heart a common expression?)

find his body in there...sandwiched in the massive compactus

found on the roo bar of the ute (root bar? ute?)

stood on the tray of the vehicle (tray?)

Signs advertised grass slashing...   (what's that?)
and horse agistment (what's that?)

a new house of outdated design, triple-fronted brick veneer with a tiled roof (Image?)
==========
What do you say?