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Australian Word List

These are the three- and four-letter words currently classed as Australian by the Ozlip Australian word game.

If you have just landed here via a search engine, you have not found a general-purpose Australian dictionary. See the References at the bottom of this page for links to some Australian English resources, and see the Explanation of the Word List for details of how these words were selected.

Explanation of the Word List

This word list contains the words currently classed as Australian words by the Ozlip Australian word game. Only three- and four-letter words are used in the game, with the QU combination treated as a single letter.

Plurals and other inflected forms (e.g. bots, sank) are not listed here, but they are permitted in the game, provided they are no more than four letters long.

The words have been chosen because they fall into at least one of the following categories:

• words originating in Australia (e.g. emu)
• words with a meaning or usage originating in Australia (e.g. bag meaning to denigrate, cask for the cardboard wine container invented in Australia)
• words used with a particular meaning by Australians but not widely used that way by English-speakers generally (e.g. cove meaning man, fellow)
• words with a special significance in Australian culture (e.g. bush, mate)

As is usual in word games, words are not permitted if they are normally written with a capital letter or a punctuation mark.

I have left out some words that seem to me to be totally obsolete or very rare, although there were a few obscure words that I couldn't resist leaving in, such as onka. Judgements on which words are rarely-used are quite subjective, so I may have left out words that others think should be included.

Corrections and suggestions are always welcome. You can use the online form or send an email to ozwords@lexigame.com.

The contents of this website are copyright, but I do not claim any rights over the list of words given here. If you want to use this selection of words in your own game or puzzle, please feel free. (Naturally, I would appreciate acknowledgement, and I would be interested to hear about any uses of the word list.)

alec

(n) stupid person, fool. Probably derived from smart alec, although the meaning is different. Originally underworld slang for a sucker, according to Baker in The Australian Language.

ambo

(n) ambulance officer

arse

(n) dismissal, "get the arse" = get the sack; impudence, cheek; luck - "more arse than class"

arvo

(n) afternoon

avo

(n) avocado

bag

(v) denigrate

bite

(v & n) borrow, cadge; demand for loan (put the bite on)

blue

(n) fight, "stack on a blue" = cause a fight or make a fuss; mistake - "He made a blue there"

bog

(v) as in "bog in" or "bog into", embark on something - especially eating a meal - with enthusiasm

bomb

(n) old car, or any old, dilapidated machine; a jump into the water, making a big splash

bora

(n) Aboriginal initiation rite

bot

(v & n) cadge; cadger. "On the bot" = seeking to cadge or borrow something. Can also be used in a milder, non-disparaging sense - "Can I bot a smoke off you?"

bulk

(adj & adv) many; very

bung

(adj) broken - "the TV's gone bung" (from an Aboriginal word bang, meaning "dead")

burl

(n) attempt - "give it a burl"

bush

(n) Australian wooded country, or countryside generally

call

(v & n) commentate on sporting event. Used elsewhere now, but claimed as Australian by the Australian National Dictionary, with an earliest usage example from 1906.

Used especially in horse racing, where the commentator is called a "race caller", but can be used of other sports. For example: "Would it be too much to ask for the ABC commentary team to comprehensively call the cricket ball by ball, give us the score frequently and describe the atmosphere?" asked "Bob Cricket", a contributor to a discussion on the Crikey Website in January 2004. In Don DeLillo's Mao II, a character says, "When I was a kid I used to announce ballgames to myself." (Jonathan Cape, 1991, page 45.) An Australian would probably say, "I used to call cricket matches to myself."

cark

(v) die (also cark it). Often used of a machine that breaks down - "the car's finally carked it"

carn

(int) come on, as encouragement to sports team - "Carn the Lions!"

cas

(n) casualty ward of hospital

cask

(n) wine container consisting of bag inside a cardboard box (invented in Australia, now found elsewhere)

chop

(adj & n) good, as in "not much chop"; share of winnings, etc - "in for your chop"; woodchopping contest

clag

(n) adhesive paste; anything of a similar consistency

cob

(n) form of address meaning friend, from cobber

coit

(n) backside; also quoit

comp

(n) competition; football league or similar - "There are some good teams in the comp"

cove

(n) fellow; bloke. Derived from British criminal cant, but said to be used mainly in Australia.

cow

(n) term of abuse; disagreeable person or situation - "I've had a cow of a day"

cray

(n) crayfish

crib

(n) snack; break from work to eat snack
(v) to cheat at marbles by moving your hand over the line when shooting

crim

(n) criminal

croc

(n) crocodile

cut

(v) to make a packed lunch, usually sandwiches - "cut lunch" = a packed lunch.

An example of this use of cut is an ABC Perth 21 June 2003 story (archived at http://www.abc.net.au/perth/stories/s885061.htm) on saving money around the house - "cut your own lunch to take to work every day". Also in Teens, A Story of Australian School Girls, 1923, by Louise Mack: "'Do you cut your own lunch?' she asked. 'No. My mother cuts it for me. Do you cut yours?'", etc, etc (chapter IV, see online text at http://purl.library.usyd.edu.au/setis/id/macteen). A cut-lunch commando is either an office-based soldier or a member of the army reserve.

cuts

(n) caning or strapping as corporal punishment (now rare, thankfully)

dack

(v) to pull someone's trousers down

dag

(n) unstylish or awkward person (can be used affectionately); an eccentric; originally, excrement hanging off sheep's backside (for a detailed discussion of the usages and origin of this word, see The Tail of a Dag at http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/ozwords/Oct%202000/TailDag.html on the Australian National Dictionary Centre site)

daks

(n) trousers

darg

(n) quota of work, either officially defined or imposed by workers. Used also in Scotland and Northern England.

darl

(n) darling

date

(n & v) anus; to poke someone in the backside

dee

(n) police detective

demo

(n) political demonstration (said to have been first used in this sense in Australia, in 1904)

dero

(n) a vagrant (from derelict)

dice

(v) throw away

diff

(n) differential in car

dig

(n) form of address, from digger

dike

(n) toilet (also dyke)

dill

(n) fool

ding

(n) dent, especially in surfboard; minor motor accident; party; foreigner (offensive); backside; penis

dink

(v & n) carry someone on your bike; a ride on a bike - "give us a dink"

dob

(v) inform (on) - "I'm dobbing on you!", often dob in; contribute (money) to a collection; kick the ball in Australian Rules football, especially to score a goal - "He dobbed it right through the middle"

doco

(n) documentary

doer

(n) someone who copes with a hard life; person of character; eccentric

dog

(n) informer. Originally from US slang, but seems to have been mainly used in Australia.

dong

(v & n) hit; blow - "dong on the head"

donk

(n) engine; donkey; penis

drum

(n) information; swagman's bundle (see swag)

duco

(n) paint on car

dud

(v) defraud

duff

(v) steal cattle or other stock

dyke

(n) toilet (also dike)

emu

(n) large flightless bird

esky

(n) insulated box for keeping food and drink cold

exy

(adj) expensive

fang

(v) borrow money aggressively; drive fast (from Fangio)

fat

(n) erect penis

full

(adj) drunk

geek

(n) look - "have a geek at that"

gig

(v & n) to mock; (take) an inquisitive look; fool; figure of fun

gin

(n) Aboriginal woman (offensive). Derived from a word meaning "woman" in an Aboriginal language, this term is listed in many dictionaries without any usage comments, but I believe it is offensive and racist when used by non-Aboriginal speakers.

ging

(n) slingshot (also shanghai)

goog

(n) egg, "full as a goog" = completely full (of food)

goom

(n) methylated spirits, when drunk by alcoholics

grog

(n) alcoholic drink of any kind. Generally used in informal contexts, but not always. For example, "What grog does to two cities" was a front page headline in the Yarra Leader for 21 February 2005, above an article by Steve Proganowski about a report on alcohol-related deaths analysed by municipality.

gum

(n) The popular name for many types of Australian tree, mainly eucalypts.

The term "gum tree" was first used in 1770 by Joseph Banks, the naturalist on James Cook's expedition that travelled up the east coast of Australia. Cook and Banks had both remarked on various types of tree that exuded a gum. At a place called Thirsty Sound, when Banks saw similar trees, he wrote in his journal, "Most of the trees were gum trees."

There are hundreds of species of gum tree, and they are found all over Australia. The world's tallest flowering plants are Australian gum trees - Eucalyptus regnans in Tasmania, standing almost 100 metres (over 320 feet) tall. Although there are a few eucalypts native to New Guinea and other places outside Australia, most of the gum trees found in countries all around the world are descended from seeds from Australia. Bluegums were introduced to Addis Ababa to provide a quick-growing source of fuel, and the city, whose name means "new flower" in Amharic, is said to have been named in honour of the trees. (One reason the trees thrived there was that goats would not eat the leaves of seedlings, because of the eucalyptus oil they contain.) For a while, international bodies such as the FAO and the World Bank encouraged many countries to plant eucalypts, but in more recent times concerns have been expressed about the damage done to local plants by the fast-growing, water-guzzling gum trees.

The above information about gum trees comes from Gum, by Ashley Hay (Duffy & Snellgrove, Sydney, 2002).

gun

(adj & n) highly talented; champion in some field. Originally used in gun shearer but can be used in any field. "Have gun online service, will travel" was an Age headline on 7 September 2004. The phrase gun coder was used by Sausage Software, as documented by this comment from a May 2000 review: "The guys at Sausage are calling HotDog Professional 6.0, 'The Gun Coder's Solution'. I found this description apt as the program sports almost every feature you could imagine in an HTML Editor." (See www.sitepoint.com/article/sausage-software .)

gyno

(n & a) gynaecologist; gynaecology; gynaecological

hide

(n) effrontery, cheek, impertinence

hoon

(n & v) lout; show-off; reckless driver; behave recklessly - "stop hooning around".

A recent example of the use of this word was in an article in "The Sunday Age" on 17 October 2004. The headline read, "Plans to seize hoons' cars". The article gave the following examples of "hoon driving behaviour": "excess noise, illegal street racing, refusal to leave a public place, exhibitions of acceleration and burn-outs". The article also referred to a "dob in a hoon" telephone hotline - two Aussie words in one go!

hoop

(n) a jockey

hops

(n) beer. Term used elsewhere, but mainly in Australia.

hoy

(n) a call - "give us a hoy"; a game of chance.

As an interjection to attract attention hoy is international, but in the sense of any kind of contact, as in "give me a hoy", it seems to be Australian. When I tried searching for "give me a hoy" on Google, the first ten entries for the phrase were all from Australians, where the nationality could be determined. (On one discussion board, it was also used as a verb in "hoy I will" in reply to someone else saying "give me a hoy".)

Another completely different Australian meaning for hoy is as the name of a game of chance, similar to bingo, played with packs of cards. The game is played at quite a few venues. For example, it is played every Wednesday at the Woolgoolga Bowling Club. (True dinks! Check out http://www.cex.com.au/index.php?page=woolgoolga).

hump

(v) carry a load ("hump the bluey" = carry a swag)

jack

(n, v, adj) kookaburra; jackaroo; venereal disease; "jack up" refuse to cooperate; "jack of" sick of

joe

(n) trooper or policeman; fool; snake (from rhyming slang Joe Blake); ewe

The song "Click Go the Shears" contains a phrase, referring to a ewe, variously represented as "bare-bellied joe", "bare-bellied yeo" and "bare-bellied yoe". Given that a snippet from the tune of "Click Go the Shears" is played by the Ozlip game when you make it to the top of a high-score table, we include all three words in this list. (Actually, "yow" is used sometimes too, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere.)

Incidentally, the tune is actually from an American song, "Ring the Bell, Watchman!" by Henry C Work (1832-84). "High in the belfry the old sexton stands, Grasping the rope with his thin bony hands..." At the Digital Tradition Mirror site, you can hear the tune and see the lyrics to both songs. (In this version, it's a "blue-bellied Joe".)

joey

(n) baby kangaroo

jube

(n) jujube, piece of chewy confectionery

kero

(n) kerosene

kino

(n) type of gum tree; resin exuded by that tree

knap

(v) break up ore

lag

(v) inform against

lair

(n & v) flashily dressed man; to dress flashily; to act in a vulgar manner

lash

(n) attempt - "have a lash at it"; fight

lob

(v) arrive unexpectedly

lurk

(n) scheme

mark

(v & n) catch the ball in Australian Rules football, after it has travelled at least 15 metres directly from a kick, earning the opportunity to kick the ball without interference from opposing players; the act of marking the ball; the spot from which a kick is taken following a mark or a a free kick.

The mark is based on something similar in rugby, and has been part of Australian Rules Football from early days. For example, the Rules of the Melbourne Football Club, May 1859 state: "Any player catching the Ball directly from the foot may call 'mark'. He then has a free kick; no player from the opposite side being allowed to come inside the spot marked." (Quoted in Geoffrey Blainey, A Game of Our Own: The Origins of Australian Football, revised edition, 2003, Black Inc. page 222.) Originally there was no lower limit on the distance the ball needed to have travelled before being marked, and the "little mark" was a feature of the game, where a team kept possession of the ball via a string of tiny passes.

mate

(n) friend. This word, used meaning "friend", is certainly not unique to Australia, but according to the Australian National Dictionary, it has a number of related meanings that are specifically Australian (see the notes in the classroom exercise at http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/res/forschools/classtopics/mate.php). Moreover, the words mate and mateship have played important roles in the history of Australian culture.

Originally, "mateship" was a term mainly used by the political left in Australia. "Socialism... is the desire to be mates, is the ideal of living together in harmony and brotherhood and loving kindness," declared The Hummer, the shearers' newspaper from Wagga Wagga in 1892. (Quoted in R.N. Ebbels, The Australian Labour Movement 1850-1907.)

But in recent times, the nationalist connotations of mateship have been emphasised, to the point where it risks becoming a tool for populist bigotry. Now mateship seems to mean, at least to some people, uniting against foreigners and "un-Australian" ideas. Prime Minister John Howard - certainly no socialist - proposed adding a preamble to the Australian constitution that would identify mateship as one of the essential features of the nation. The rescue of two miners from underground in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, in 2006, was hailed by the media as a shining example of Aussie mateship - as if miners in any other part of the world would leave their workmates for dead.

mob

(n) class of people (e.g. weird mob); large number of anything

mole

(n) girl or woman, especially one considered to have loose morals

moz

(v & n) jinx - "put a moz on him" (also mozz)

muso

(n) musician

myxo

(n) myxomatosis, disease of rabbits

nana

(n) banana; do your nana, lose your temper; off your nana, crazy; said to have been a short-lived hairstyle of the 1920s, hence the expressions where nana stands in for head

nick

(v) go, as in nick out, nick off

nong

(n) idiot

norg

(n) see nork

nork

(n) woman's breast (also norg).

According to Baker in The Australian Language, the word is derived from the Norco Co-operative, which depicted a cow's udder on its butter packaging. Susan Butler in The Dinkum Dictionary (2001) questions this theory, asking why the term norco was never used before being shortened to nork, and where, in this account, the variant norg comes from. An alternative explanation of the word's origin was published a few years ago in the Ozwords newsletter, claiming the word was inspired by an Australian band called the New Orleans Rythm Kings. (See http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/ozwords/November_98/4._from_the_centre.htm.)

Usage note: Susan Butler points out that nork is a blokey term, unlikely to be used by a woman, who might use a word like, say, boobs. (When looking for Susan Butler's book, be aware that there are at least two other books with names similar to "Dinkum Dictionary", and they are not necessarily as dinkum as that of Ms Butler, who is the publisher of the Macquarie Dictionary.)

oil

(n) information; news.

onka

(n) finger (rhyming slang from Onkaparinga, once a brand of blanket made at the Onkaparinga Woollen Mills in South Australia)

onya

(int) good on you!

oval

(n) sportsground (of whatever shape)

pash

(n & v) passionate kissing; to kiss passionately, also pash on.

Usage examples:

"kiss me passionately / pash me pash me pash me" ("Pash", song by Kate Ceberano and Mark Goldenberg, 1997)

"The festival's bayside climax would not come until late afternoon and the first puckerings of the Yooralla's Kiss for a Cause, an attempt to "smash the pash" and break the world record for simultaneously kissing couples." ("St Kilda's passion for pashing", by Jonathon Green, The Age, 14 February 2005)

An article by Barry Divola in Sunday Life, the Sunday Age Magazine on 6 February 2005 describes pash as 70s Australian slang, but claims it is big in the UK and is set for a resurgence. He says, "Be prepared for pash rash all over again." Pash rash = stubble rash caused by prolonged pashing with a badly-shaven man. (Pash rash doesn't seem to have made it into any of the printed Australian dictionaries yet, but there are plenty of Web pages using the phrase. And regular viewers of Kath & Kim, http://www.kathandkim.com/, will recall Sharon's bad case.)

Update - Pash rash has now appeared in a revised edition of a classic reference work, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, edited by Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor (Routledge, 2005). But still not in any Aussie dictionaries to our knowledge.

pat

(n) own, as in "on your pat".

But is this an Australian word in its own right? It's hard to think of an example that isn't part of the phrase "on [my/your/his/her/etc] own". So maybe it's a ring-in. What do you think? Let us know your views.

pav

(n) pavlova (dessert)

pavs

(n) pavlovas (dessert)

pea

(n) favourite in race, election, competition for job, etc

piff

(v) throw, discard. If you throw something out, you could say you "piffed it out", or you "piffed it off" or, simply, that you "piffed it".

This is not a very new word, but Australian dictionaries have caught up with it only recently. It does not seem to be listed in any dictionary or Australian slang book printed before 2003. The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary (2004) gives the terse definition "throw". The Macquarie ABC Dictionary (2003) says, "to throw; chuck: piff yonnies." (Yonnies is also an Australian slang word, meaning small stones.) Both dictionaries agree that the word is mainly Victorian.

The ABC set up an Australian Word Map site, http://abc.net.au/wordmap/, to gather information on the regional usage of words. Piff has an entry here, in which several contributors (mainly from Victoria) recall using the word in childhood. (The ABC has now published a book, Word Map, by Kel Richards, 2005, drawing on the comments posted on the Word Map website. This book also has an entry for piff.)

There was an item ( http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/ozwords/April%202001/FTCApril2001.html) about piff in Ozwords, the newsletter of the Australian National Dictionary Centre, for April 2001, which appealed for examples of the word in print. The article drew attention to the existence of a Warrnambool-based band called "the Piffen Yonnies".

According to http://www.slangsite.com, piff is, "A substitute for any verb. Used in Australia in the 1980s". This is probably a little broad. (If it were true, piff would be able to take its place alongside the "great Australian adjective" - bloody.) On the other hand, I feel the dictionary definitions are a little narrow, focussing on the sense of physically throwing something, usually yonnies. I have the impression that the term is often used in connection with getting rid of things, and does not necessarily entail any physical act of throwing. For example, "piff those files off the computer." A friend who was telling me about a meditation class said, "you have to focus on your thoughts, so you can piff them off."

The origin of the word is unknown, according to the Oxford, but "Brit colloquial imitative" according to the Macquarie. (Imitative of what?) Apparently James Joyce used piff in Finnegan's Wake, but with a different meaning (unless of course the Australian piff is a substitute for any verb). I doubt this is the source of the Australian usage.

pimp

(n) telltale, informer

pom

(n) English person, often in a derogatory sense - also Pom

port

(n) suitcase; any travelling bag

prop

(v) to stop abruptly; stand still; stay - "I'll prop here for a while"

punt

(n) a gamble or risk, as in "take a punt"

push

(n) gang, clique. Originally a gang of ruffians, now any group with common interests or background. (Also The Push - the Sydney University Libertarian Society, whose most famous member was Germaine Greer.)

quack

(n) a medical practitioner, without implying lack of qualifications. Used elsewhere now, but recorded first in Australia.

quoit

(n) backside, also coit

quoll

(n) type of marsupial

rage

(n & v) a really good time; to party.

Since 1987, Australia's ABC television has used "Rage" as the name of an all-night rock music video show. (See http://www.abc.net.au/rage/rage.htm.)

rap

(v & n) praise, commendation - "she gave me a big rap", also wrap

rapt

(adj) delighted; infatuated - also wrapped

rego

(n) car registration

rels

(n) relatives

roo

(n) kangaroo

root

(v & n) (have) sexual intercourse; sexual partner - "he's a good root"; ruin - "it's completely rooted"

An exploitative male can be labelled a wombat, because he "eats, roots and leaves". This joke is the original for the story associated with the title of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, the book about punctuation by Lynne Truss. Her bowdlerised version requires a tedious explanation, is no longer amusing and doesn't really make a lot of sense. Pity! If Truss had come up with a better title her book might have sold a few copies.

rort

(n & v) swindle

ruck

(n) In Australian Rules football, the player who jumps high in the air to knock the ball down to a team-mate is called a ruckman, and is said to play in the ruck.

The word is used in various combinations, such as "ruck play", "ruck contest" and "ruck rules", the latter phrase being used frequently in recent discussions of rule changes that limited the length of run-up ruckmen could take before leaping for the ball, in the hope of reducing rates of injury.

"The ruck" can also be a collective term for the three players on a team, also called "followers", who do not have a specific position on the field. The three followers are normally a ruckman, a rover and a ruck-rover, although these don't seem to be prescribed by the rules of the game. But the term has come to be used mainly in relation to the ruckman specifically. If someone is said to be playing in the ruck this week, it would be unlikely to mean he is playing as a rover. When I asked some questions about word usage on the Big Footy discussion board (see http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165559), members told me that nowadays a great many players follow the ball all over the field, especially players nominally assigned to positions around the middle section of the ground. Hence the term "midfielders" for a large group of players - including the ruckman and rovers - who follow the ball.

The Aussie Rules usage of ruck may derive from the dictionary meaning for the phrase the ruck, of "a grouping of undistinguished people or things", in other words, the players without assigned positions. However, the term ruck is used in rugby union for a type of scrum, and some connection seems likely. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary says the Aussie Rules usage of ruck dates from the late 19th century, and the rugby usage only to the early 20th century, which implies that rugby might have got the term from Aussie Rules - is this possible? In any case, it seems that ruck play in the early days of Australian football did not involve much of the high flying of today. In the 1870s the rules of the game stated that the ball was not in play after a boundary throw-in until it touched the ground. And it seems that the practice after a ball-up was for the players to wait until the ball 's first bounce before going for it, even though there was nothing in the rules about it. (The source for this is Geoffrey Blainey, A Game of Our Own: The Origins of Australian Football, revised edition, 2003, Black Inc. page 121.) So the players contesting the ball must have often been involved in a ground-level tussle something like a rugby scrum. As the Australian game changed, the word ruck could have continued to be applied to those who contended for the ball after a stoppage, leading to its current meaning.

The Australian dictionaries are not much help with the word ruck. Their definitions are all eerily similar, and all seem to miss the essence of the contemporary meaning. For example, the Macquarie Dictionary (3rd edition, 1997) says, "ruck ... Australian Rules a. a group of three players, a rover and two followers (ruckmen), who do not have fixed positions but follow the play with the purpose of winning possession of the ball. b. the two followers only. c. a member of either of these groups." and "ruckman (in Australian Rules) one who plays in the ruck; follower". This seems out of date, in that there is now usually only one ruckman, and the term follower is used nowadays to refer to rovers as well as ruckmen, but the more glaring problem is that it doesn't tell us anything about what the ruckman specifically does (other than trying to win possession of the ball - as opposed, presumably to other players whose mission in life is to avoid the ball at all costs). Similar definitions can be found in the Australian National Dictionary, the Australian Oxford Dictionary and the Collins Australian Dictionary.

Fortunately, an even more prestigious reference work is at hand: Aussie Rules for Dummies, by Jim Main (Wiley Publishing Aust Pty Ltd, 2003). From the Cheat Sheet inside the front cover, "Ruckman: usually (but not always) the tallest player in the side, the ruckman gets his team moving from stoppages, such as bounce-downs, boundary throw-ins and ball-ups. His main role is to tap or knock the ball to smaller teammates from these stoppages and his work is called ruck play... A good ruckman can also take marks around the ground." Now that's more like it for a definition!

Second prize for defining ruckman must go to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993) - that's right, an English edition, not the Australian Oxford - which says, "a member of a ruck whose function is esp. to knock the ball to the ruck-rover". Skimpy, but more helpful than the definition in the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary (2004), which is along the same lines as the Macquarie definition quoted above. What went wrong here?

sav

(n) saveloy

she

(pron) it, as in "she'll be right, mate"

sink

(v) swallow, as in "sink a few beers". Used elsewhere now, but first recorded in Australia.

skip

(n) Australian of British descent (often derogatory)

skol

(v) swallow a drink in one go - also skoal, skull

slab

(n) shrink-wrapped package of two dozen cans or bottles of beer

slag

(v & n) spit

slug

(v & n) charge excessively, an excessive charge

sly

(adj) illegal, as in sly grog, illicitly sold alcohol

snag

(n & v) sausage; to shear sheep

soda

(n) pushover, easy victim; simple task

sook

(n) cry-baby, person too ready to complain

sool

(v) egg someone (on); originally, to set a dog on someone

sort

(n) an attractive person, usually female, also good sort

squib

(n) shirk; back down

squiz

(n) a quick look - "take a squiz at this"

surf

(v) ride waves on a board (usage first recorded in Australia). The earliest example of this usage quoted in the Australian National Dictionary is from a 1913 Bulletin article. Although most people in other countries would probably not think of it now as an Australian expression, its Australian origin, together with the strong association between surfing and the stereotypical Australian lifestyle, give it a strong claim to be considered an Australianism.

swag

(n) bundle of possessions of an itinerant, often in a rolled blanket (for more details, see the Australian National Dictionary Centre discussion of swag at http://www.anu.edu.au/ANDC/Austwords/swag.html.

swy

(n) two-up, a gambling game played by tossing coins

tea

(n) evening meal, dinner. The use of this word for a meal at which tea is not necessarily drunk seems to be most common in Australia and the north of England.

teno

(n) tenosynovitis, inflammation of a tendon sheath

tike

(n) see tyke

tip

(v) to guess - "Did you tip it was me at the door?"

toey

(adj) edgy, restless

togs

(n) swimming costume

toot

(n) euphemism for lavatory

tote

(n) totalizator betting system

tray

(n) open platform on truck

trot

(n) run of good or bad luck

tuan

(n) type of marsupial

tube

(n) can or bottle of beer

turn

(n) party; fuss - "stack on a turn"

tyke

(n) Roman Catholic (derogatory)

uni

(n) university

ute

(n) utility truck

vag

(n & v) a vagrant; charge with vagrancy

vego

(n & adj) vegetarian

wag

(v) play truant (from), as in "wag school" - also wag it, play truant (said to be derived from waghalter, a person likely to be hanged!)

wipe

(v) dismiss; disown

wog

(n) germ; illness

woma

(n) type of python

wonk

(n) derogatory term for white person used by Aborigines; generalized term of abuse; effeminate or homosexual male

wrap

(n) commendation, also rap

yarn

(v & n) to chat; talk; a chat; discussion

yeo

(n) ewe, as in "bare-bellied yeo" - also yoe and joe

yoe

(n) ewe - also yeo and joe

zac

(n) see zack

zack

(n) sixpence, in pre-decimal currency times. Now mainly used figuratively, in expressions like "not a zack". Also, in criminal slang, a prison term of six months or six years.

ziff

(n) beard

The In-Tray: Proposed New Words

ask

(n) the magnitude of a target or request.

This is used in phrases like "a big ask". In the 2004 US presidential campaign, candidate John Kerry said in a speech, "I'm asking you to trust our nation, our history, the world, your families, in my hands. And I understand that it's a big ask." (Too big an ask, as it turned out.) Kerry's use of the phrase provoked some discussion on the US-based Language Log web site, archived at http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001331.html . Some of the contributors considered "ask" was simply being used to mean a request, one person citing a definition to this effect on a Microsoft web site. The general feeling seemed to be that this usage is to be regretted.

It certainly would be a deplorable trend if ask as a noun was no more than a piece of corporate baby-talk for "something that is asked", but it seems to have a more specific connotation in Australian usage, as a reference to the magnitude of a request. So as well as a "big ask", we can have a "small ask" or a "reasonable ask".

Or simply, "an ask", which would usually imply a big ask, as in the application of this term to a perhaps unexpected topic by Professor Gab Kovacs, the Monash IVF Medical Director, reported in The Age on 5 March 2005: "If you've got a busy day and have to race out and produce a sperm specimen rather than have a sandwich and read the paper, it's an ask."

A "bit of an ask" is also commonly used. This is either (depending on context) a fairly big ask or a huge ask. Examples from online forums: "We are aiming to reach Alice Springs media stop by 5 PM today, but this will be a bit of an ask." "Finding a straight single male (who wasn't some Kiwi yob) in the eastern suburbs of Sydney would be a bit of an ask." [Bigoted views not endorsed by the Ozlip website.]

Furthermore, the magnitude of the ask can be considered from two distinct perspectives. A big ask can be a heavy imposition on someone's generosity, in which case it means much the same as "a lot to ask", or it can be something that will be difficult to provide, even though the person asked may be happy to meet the request if only they can: "It was a tough ask; Harmer had been number one for years and it was unclear how her audience would take to an interloper who had moved up from Melbourne." (Age Green Guide 31 March 2005, about the replacement of Wendy Harmer by Judith Lucy as Sydney breakfast radio announcer.)

So, is this an Australian usage? The phrase "big ask" is classed as Australian by the Australian Oxford and by G A Wilkes' Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, with the earliest example from 1985: "He had set an ask of $17,990, which was really stretching things." Further evidence is provided perhaps by the fact that the non-Australian language mavens discussing John Kerry's use of the phrase considered it a novelty. In contrast, Australia's Kate Burridge concludes a list of verbs converted to nouns with, "and of course a big ask", without feeling the need for any further explanation (Weeds in the Garden of Words, page 26).

The Big Ask (2001) is an Australian crime novel by Shane Maloney. Other books with "ask" as a noun in the title are A Big Ask by Ruth Nelson and The Great Big Animal Ask by Libby Hathorn (both also Australian). Web searches show a preponderance of Australians using ask in this way, although there are instances from people in the UK and elsewhere, so the usage has evidently spread. The phrase big ask is listed in the 2003 edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English, without being flagged as an Australian usage. Ducks in a row: An A-Z of Offlish: The Definitive Guide to Office English (2005) by Carl Newbrook has a listing for big ask, claiming an origin in "Premiership English", i.e. (UK) football commentators' terminology.

And of course, there's the John Kerry speech. Was there an Australian speechwriter in the Kerry camp perhaps?

So, ask will probably be added to the Ozlip Australian word list. Any comments? Let us know your views.

uey

(n) U-turn

This slang term is now widely used outside Australia. For example, Donald Westlake's Road to Ruin (2004) has a character say, "...so I did a U-ey and went all the way down to Forty-second..." But it is often claimed to be an Australian invention. Susan Butler in The Dinkum Dictionary (2001) quotes an example from the National Geographic of February 1979, referring to Australian speech: "...to 'do a uey in a ute at the uni' really means making a U-turn in a utility truck at the university." This quote is rather persuasive in support of the word's Australian character, as evidently the writer thought the term needed explanation to an international audience. Ute and uni are in the Ozlip list, so why not uey too?

When I wrote to Susan Butler seeking confirmation of the word's Australian origin, she kindly sent me extracts from the Oxford English Dictionary and Cassell's Dictionary of Slang by Jonathon Green, both confirming the expression's Australian origin. It is also listed in The Australian National Dictionary and Wilkes' Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms.

So, why the hesitation? The only problem, from an Ozlip point of view is that nearly all of the many spellings of this word are ruled out of Ozlip, either because they use a capital letter and/or a hyphen (U-ey, Uey, U-ie) or are too long (yewie, youee) or too short(uy). It seems that every time someone writes this word, they invent a new spelling. Perhaps we should take a bold initiative and try to set the standard, with uey.

Should uey be added to the Ozlip Australian word list? Let us know your views.

The Out-Tray: Excluded Words

acca

(n, adj, verb) academic, to study

Many dictionaries and word lists include acca, as slang for an academic (university lecturer). The Australian Oxford also gives it as a verb: "I need to acca for tomorrow's exam." I have never heard this word used, and I imagine it is included in so many dictionaries because the compilers are academics, who get a laugh out of it! But I could be wrong.

So, acca is not allowed in Ozlip. Any comments? Let us know your views.

jake

(adj) satisfactory, as in "everything's jake", "she'll be jake".

The term has probably been used as much in North America as in Australia and authorities are divided as to where it originated. In any case, jake now seems to lack a distinctively Australian flavour. Perhaps most significantly, the term appears to have largely gone out of use everywhere. We don't want to burden the Ozlip list with too many dated or obscure usages. (Of course, in the phrase "She'll be jake," the she counts as an Australian word.)

So, jake is not allowed in Ozlip. Any comments? Let us know your views.

References

Note: Most Australian dictionaries aim to cover the English language as it is spoken in Australia. Hence most of the words in these dictionaries are not peculiarly Australian. And words that are used only in Australia are not necessarily labelled as such. Paradoxically, the best information about which words and usages are Australian can sometimes be found in a good international dictionary. However, the Oxford Australian Dictionaries have a policy of labelling Australian words and usages, and are therefore extremely useful to the Australian word list compiler. (But note that the Ozlip Australian Word List also includes some words that are commonly used outside Australia but appear to have originated in Australia. An example is muso.)

The Australian National Dictionary seems to be the only general dictionary that restricts itself to Australian words and usages. A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms by G A Wilkes also aims to cover only Australian terms. The "Australian slang" websites listed below should be used with caution, as many of the words and phrases they present are in common use in England and/or North America.

The Australian National Dictionary: A Dictionary of Australianisms on Historical Principles. W.S. Ramson. Oxford University Press, 1988.

The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary, fourth Edition. Edited by Bruce Moore. Oxford University Press, 2004.

The Macquarie Dictionary - Third Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 1997.

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Lesley Brown. Oxford University Press, 1993.

A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, fourth edition. G A Wilkes. Oxford University Press, 1996.

The Australian Language, second edition. Sidney J Baker. Sun Books, 1970.

The Dinkum Dictionary: The Origins of Australian Slang. Susan Butler. Text, 2001.

Ozwords, the newsletter of the Australian National Dictionary Centre. Subscription is free at http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/pubs/ozwords/index.php. And in the April 2006 issue, you can read an article by us about compiling the Ozlip word list!

OneLook Dictionary Search, http://onelook.com, provides links to many online dictionaries, including the Macquarie Dictionary Book of Slang.

Aussie Slang Dictionary. http://www.aussieslang.com/slang/australian-slang-a.asp

Australian Slang Dictionary. http://www.koalanet.com/australian-slang.html

Ozlip website and software © Alan Walker 2004-2005.
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