Aussie Jargon, Sayings and Other Stuff

A snap-shot of Aussie culture from a Pom's point of view.






abbo - Aboriginal

AFL - Australian Football League - rugby with strange (Aussie) rules that nobody except people from Victoria seems to understand

Akubra - wide-brimmed hat made from rabbit pelts, popular with farmers

Australia - a land down-under (also aussie, oz)

barbie - barbeque

bash - to beat up

billabong - Aborginial for waterhole; a brand of surfwear

billy - old tin swaggies used to boil tea in

blue heeler - a cattle dog with blue-grey fur

boogie board - shorter and wider than a surf board, you lie on it with your lower legs in the sea and surf the waves

boardies - board shorts, used to surf in

bogan

bunyip - dangerous creature from Aboriginal mythology that lives in billabongs

capsicum - a pepper

cataract - when someone opens your eye when you're asleep and ejaculates in it

Cherry Ripe - a popular cherry-flavoured chocolate bar

chips - crisps (potato chips)

combie - an old Volkswagon camper van popular with hippies

dag - a sad loser

doona - a duvet

Driza Bone - brand of waterproof overcoat used by farmers

drongo

dunny - toilet (also dunny can)

fair dinkum - genuine; "it's the truth!"

feral - a psychopathic hippy

festy - ugly, nasty, gross

footy - rugby

funnelweb - a deadly, aggressive spider found in and around Sydney

g'day - hello

goin' bush - to go out and live like a feral

gouge - when someone sticks their finger up your arse (usually with intent to irritate rather than arouse)

hot chips - chips (fried potatoes)

how ya goin'? - how are you

icy pole - a square of ice cream on a stick; a lolly

joey - a young kangaroo

kangaroo - a large marsupial that hops on its hind legs and brings up its young in a pouch

kelpie - a cattle dog

knee high to a grasshopper - when you were a small child, e.g. "I haven't seen you since you were knee high to a grasshopper!"

kookaburra - a small kingfisher bird with a distinctive laughing, monkey-like call

lamington - a cube or finger-shaped sponge cake, covered in chocolate and sprinkled with coconut, sometimes with cream and jam in the middle

legend - compliment; someone who's really cool (also "ledge")

Maccas - McDonalds

middy - a half-pint glass, usually of beer (10 oz; 285 ml; 1 unit of alcohol)

mongrel - asshole

nip - a shot of spirit

oily - when someone wipes the sweat from their arse crack and wipes it off on someone else's upper lip

Pom - a Brit

rack off - go away

redback - a dangerously poisonous spider

redheaded rat rooter - insult to someone with red hair

rip - a place in the sea where two currents cross over and produce a third current that pulls down underwater and usually back out to sea, dangerous to swimmers

rooted - to be fucked (something that may happen when rorted); to be broken

rorted - extremely drunk

rural - someone who lives in rural areas

sambo - a sandwich

sanger - a sandwich

semi - a semi-trailer, a long vehicle

schooner - a glass, usually of beer (15 oz; 375 ml; 1.4 units of alcohol)

scrag - a dirty whore

shocker - exclamation, usually for something kind of festy; e.g. "that's a shocker!"

Slim Dusty - Australian country singer famous for such songs as "G'day, g'day"

soccer - football

spoof - semen

sprog - to ejaculate; semen

State of Origin - rugby league played between NSW and Queensland

stone the crows - exclamation; "bloody hell"

strewth - exclamation; "wow"

strike a light - exclamation; "fancy that"

Stubbies - brand of very short work/school shorts, not to be confused with the drink

stubby - a bottle of beer, equivalent to a schooner in volume

stubby holder - a foam container to stop stubbies from getting warm while held

swag - very thin mattress rolled up in a blanket which a swaggy used to sleep on when he stopped in the bush at night

swag man - olden day person who wandered Australia looking for work carrying his swag (also swaggy)

thongs - flip-flops

Tim Tam - a delicious chocolate biscuit that comes in many varieties, Tim Tams can also be used to drink hot drinks such as coffee through them by biting off two opposite corners and holding it over the drink until the inside melts a little then sucking on one corner

Toohey's New - Aussie lager

trucky - a lorry driver

ute - short for utility; a kind of truck

VB - Victoria Bitter; beer made in Victoria

Vegemite - a spread made from yeast extract, similar but nicer than Marmite

wog - someone with Mediterranean features, e.g. Italian

yowie - Australian bigfoot that supposedly lives in the bush