scot47

The world is full of wonders of which we know little ! "Ma'ashallah!" as the Faithful say !


History of Chinese Migrations in the 19th centuries is not well documented.

Gordon Barlow

Here's one for the ages: "as useless as a cupful of cold water!" Ask your Aussie friends (male) what that means. (Assuming it's still in use, of course.)

Gordon Barlow

I've just been checking out some old photos with my brothers (by email), and debating how old one of us was in one of the photos. A toddler's age was reckoned to be four months, and one of the boys said, "He looks a bit hairy-arsed for four months!" That expression was - in our youth - usually applied to young male teenagers who seemed older than their given ages. I wonder if it's still in use today. Perhaps some BE member will tell us if they've heard it since he or she immigrated. Thanks.

Gordon Barlow

I wonder if long pants are still called "dungarees" in Oz - usually abbreviated as "dungers". I found myself using the latter form for my underpants this morning, unusually. Childhood terms are forcing their way into my consciousness these days. Sad...

Gordon Barlow

I've just discovered this web-page in an obscure part of this site.
Login required to edit - Preview : British Expat Wiki
Here's what it says:
Australia has a wonderful collection of slang, terms and phrases unique to their brand of English. Sometimes Australian English is referred to as Strine.
See: About.com's list of Australian slang.
Example:
I'm as dry as a dead dingo's donger - I'm thirsty (get me a beer)
*** A man's not a camel - I'm thirsty (get me a beer)
*** I could eat the crutch of a low flying duck - I'm hungry (get me a snag)

And here's what I submitted as an edit. (I'm not sure the edit "took", but it's doubtful if anybody reads the entry anyway.)
Foreigners should be aware that inventing slang is an old game among the native-born. I've done it myself, in my younger days! Some inventions end up in naive publications that are sucked into believing that it's genuine slang used by all Australians. "I could eat the crutch of a low-flying duck" - snort! That looks for all the world like the product of a drunken competition by a bunch of city boys. Nobody I have ever known has used that or has ever heard of it. A very few such inventions do "make it" in the real world, but they're usually said with self-conscious amusement. "A dead dingo's donger" is a fair example. I was brought up in dingo country in the 1940s, and it doesn't sound like a bush expression at all. "Shirtlifter" was invented by Barry Humphries in about 1960 for The Adventures of Barry McKenzie movie.

Sorry to disillusion anybody!

Kim67

You've been away from home far too long Gordy, "I could eat the crutch of a low flying duck" has been around for a very long time, especially in the mining towns of WA.

Gordon Barlow

Well, I've been alive for a very long time, Kimmy! I've never heard it spoken, but then I've never lived in the mining towns of WA. There are plenty of local slang expressions, all over the world, of course, which aren't common elsewhere. I can think of a few from the Darling Downs that I've never heard outside the area, and others from Toowoomba, and yet others from the parts of Brisbane that I've lived in. For me, those are in the nature of family expressions, and don't really count as "Australian". For instance... in our house we have a wonderful expression "two tuppenies!" meaning "spare no expense!" that had its origin in Kangaroo Valley in the 1960s.

However, I'm being too fussy. Do you have any more from the mining towns that have made it to the mainstream? Maybe "flat out like a lizard drinking" is one of them. That, too, isn't one I've heard in real life, except from city-folk. Sounds a bit too Crocodile Dundee to be real, but maybe not. In my part of the bush, words were reckoned to be too precious to spend unnecessarily!

SoCalDon

I don't know many Australian sayings yet but I came across some crackers in America. "I'm so hungry I could chew the ass off a menstruating Polecat" being my personal favourite.

Gordon Barlow

Probably not an old, traditional, saying. Although, you never know. This one seems to be the same vintage, roughly:
"As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University" Ah, they don't write them like that any more...

Alfresco

Gordon Barlow

Do people still apply the word "dag" to someone who's "cool", or a bit of a comic? I haven't used it for many years, but it was common usage in my youth.

Gordon Barlow

Also, "dill": is that still in use? It used to mean what the Americans call a dork.

spouse of scouse

Way out West, dag is still used a lot. Dill, as in 'he's a bit of a dill' not so much except among the oldies.

spouse of scouse

I still use 'stone the crows!', 'useless as tits on a bull', 'hard yakka' (said that to a Pom last week, to be met with a blank stare).

Were you born in a tent?
oo'roo
He/she has a kangaroo loose in the top paddock
He/she is a stubbie short of a six-pack
Mad as a cut snake
Couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery
Smoko

I doubt you'll need a translation for any of those, but sing out if you do

SoCalDon

My other half just announced that the dinner that she doesn't want to go to this evening is in 'Woop Woop' which appears to be any place that is very far away. Woop Woop out back of Bourke is also acceptable apparently.