Gordon Barlow

I was born and raised in Australia, but left when I was 23. Since then, I've been an expat in various countries, and have largely lost touch with my old home, and the way I used to talk. Every once in a while, I recollect slang-terms from back then, and wonder whether they are still in use. My wife (also Australian) and I sometimes point out a heavily built infant or baby and describe him as a "boofter kid", to each other. Is that still in use? (Not to be confused with the p-word, of course.) Or its female equivalent, the soft comment, "she'll be a great help to her mother when she grows up"?

Gordon Barlow

I'm surprised by the occasional appearance of new Aussie slang, invented since I left in 1963. "Flat out like a lizard drinking" (= going very fast) is a recently made-up expression - somebody trying to be cool in an ocker way, I guess. I hate that one.

Does anybody on this list remember the Barry McKenzie cartoon in "Private Eye", and the film featuring that character? That popularised - and may have actually invented - the verb "chunder" and the noun "shirt-lifter". I've read that the movie was re-made a couple of years ago. I've no idea why. The originals (comic-strip and movie) were very much of their time - a roguish satire of the Kangaroo Valley culture in the 1960s. Funny at the time, but utterly cringe-worthy today, I'd think.

ozzieeagle

Best one I ever heard and it still brings a embarrassed apprehensive smile to my face.... When a friend of a friend exclaimed about a new female in the group'

"She's as ugly as a kicked in Shiiiitt tin"

Not nice at all, but hell it conjured up some imagery.

Oh and my wife got into a little bit of trouble on a visit to WA with one of her old outback NSW term for a grass tree, which she hadn't seen for years........ Calling them without thought "Black Boys" apparently a big no no in WA.... probably a just as big a no no out West of Parkes in NSW these days as well.

Gordon Barlow

Yes, we used to call those trees "black boys" in Queensland, too, back in the '60s. I don't know if they still do. Maybe not.

As for the insulting term for an ugly woman... It sounds as though it would be authentic among the yob community, but I doubt if it's peculiarly Australian. Has anybody heard it used in England?

ozzieeagle

It's a Sydney term from the 50's and aludes to those night cart men.... Their tins usually had kick dents in them..which is what I remembered.... I've seen a few like that....They didn't have those in the UK. (thats a idea for a thread actually so here goes)........



Most graphic ones I've heard have all come from Sydneysiders.

jad n rich

On the building sites in QLD, (warning this is gross but certainly gives an image!! )

If you want to read on . Hungry, very hungry building site worker, " I could eat the --nt out of a rotten fox ".

jad n rich

We have some wild on our acerage in QLD. If they are in pots they are supposed to be registered with number tag, protected now. shops sell them as grass trees.

Knew of the blackboy name as our friends from PNG would call them that, didnt worry them one bit Hilarous kids, they would call each other brownies and an afro do was a fuzzy wuzzy. If the PC police were about when we had those kids over for pool parties we would have been arrested for what they said!!

Amazulu

They are routinely called that here

Gordon Barlow

In my part of Queensland, in my youth, the term "blackboy" was never used for aborigines. "Blackfella" was, and was sometimes used by the people themselves. The main term used was "abo". It had no contemptuous connotation, necessarily, though I gather it's now considered non-PC in all circumstances. A common term, dismissive rather than contemptuous, was "burri/boori". To say that a white friend had "gone all boori" was a teasing way of saying that he had a serious suntan. The most insulting term for a coloured person, for those interested, was "boong", which I've read is actually a Malayan word meaning "brother", brought back by soldiers from the Dutch East Indies. I've no idea if that's still in use. Does anybody know, here?

ozzieeagle

My MiL (who died in the 80's) used the term Boong quite freely and without malice as far as I could tell, especially considering the fact that my oldest BiL was married briefly to a Bendigo raised Koori and the whole family were close to her family for years before and after the marriage. In fact I've got 2 nieces and one Nephew from that marriage.... one of whom doesn't consider themselves Koori in any way or form and two that do....

The two that do have adopted the modern Koori way.... I wont say too much about that, they move around the country a lot and dont work. The one that doesn't has married into one of the most successful farm service business in Toowoomba (stock feed I think) and is almost certain to know of Jothefw I'd reckon. I met a hell of a lot of Toowoomba business people at her wedding 6 years back.. Including the UK bloke that runs the local Pirtek franchise up there.

I've not heard the term Boong used since my MiL passed away.

Gordon Barlow

I'm reminded of the terms we used to use to refer to foreigners. Dago for Spanish & Italians, also wop and eye-tie for Italians - wop being insulting, eye-tie not. Balts for immigrants from the Baltic countries, DPs for Displaced Persons in general. Poms for British, of course - Pommie bastards if we were being mean.

Interesting that a common derogatory term for Arabs these days is goat-****ers. Not nice at all, but scarcely different from the term for New Zealanders since the beginning of time - sheep-shaggers. The latter was a bit rich, from Australians. Just a week ago some young friends here were reminiscing about their first loves, and one said, "Come on Gordon, tell us about Sheila the Sheep!" I replied huffily that I never talked about my old love life; that was probably a mistake...

Gordon Barlow

I should have mentioned in my post that the word "nigger" was never used as a derogatory term in my part of the world - to the best of my recollection. There was a boy at my boarding school whose nickname was "Nigger", because he had slightly brown skin. (And there was a full-blood aboriginal who was always called "Jacky" - though again not meant in any derogatory way.)

One of the legendary heroes of Toowoomba Rugby League was a player from the '30s or '20s called "Nigger" Brown. The grandstand at the footie ground was called The "Nigger" Brown Stand. That was acceptable in the '60s, when my Dad and I were regular attendees, but not when it came to be replaced forty or so years later. The older generation of aborigines were content to let the name be kept, but some of the young bloods weren't. The local RL administrators had to settle for a statue whose plaque read E. S. "Nigger" Brown". That was still there at last report.

Gordon Barlow

I'm wondering if a bunch of messy papers is still dismissed as "like a Chinese packapoo ticket". (I once read that the expression began in the USA, but it was current when I was a young man in Queensland.)

scot47

Pakapoo ticket – Gold and gold mining – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Gordon Barlow

Thank you very much, Scot! Much appreciated. I never knew there ever was such a thing in real life. Live and learn, eh?