Australian words
- Note: A list of Australian vocabulary can be found at Australian English vocabulary until it is transwikied to Wiktionary.
According to stereotype, spoken Australian English is thought to be highly colloquial, possibly more so than other spoken variants. Whether this idea is grounded in reality or not, a substantial number of publications aimed at giving an overview of Australian English have been published.
Many books about Australian vocabulary have been published, beginning with Karl Lentzner's Dictionary of the Slang-English of Australia and of Some Mixed Languages in 1892. Several similar books soon followed, including a relatively modest but authoritative work by E. E. Morris: Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages (1898).
After a long period of disinterest and/or antipathy, the first dictionaries of Australian English began to appear. In 1976, the Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary was published, the first dictionary edited and published in Australia, by Graeme Johnston. In 1981, the more comprehensive Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English was published, after 10 years of research and planning. Updated editions have been published since and the Macquarie Dictionary is widely regarded as authoritative. A fuller Oxford Dictionary of Australian English has also been published.
Various publishers have also produced "phrase books" to assist visitors. These books reflect a highly exaggerated and often outdated style of Australian colloquialisms and they should partially be regarded as amusements rather than accurate usage guides.
Terms for people
Australians use a variety of colourful terms to refer to people. These terms may indicate such things as the person's ethnicity, the place where the person resides, the social status of the person, the person's behaviour, etc. Many of these words occur in other English dialects, especially New Zealand English, whilst others are unique to Australian English.
Proper nouns
It is also common amongst Australians to shorten the names of places, people, companies, etc. Some of these terms are regional others are in relatively widespread use. Many terms derive from company or brand names others derive from rhyming slang or the use the use of diminutives.
Clothing
Australians use many unique terms to relate to items of clothing. Some of these terms are regional. Many derive from company or brand names others derive from rhyming slang.
Food and drink
Where foodstuffs are concerned, Australian English tends to be more closely related to the British vocabulary, for example the term biscuit has always been favoured over the American terms cookie and cracker. (However, as had been the case with many terms, cookie is recognised by Australians, and occasionally used, especially among younger generations; this is due to high levels of American film and television programmes being seen in Australia and certain fast food franchises of American origin now widespread in Australia. Although cookies are generally regarded as considerably larger, i.e. palm-sized; and sweeter, "chocolate-chip" etc., than the more commonplace biscuit).
Another example related to the former is chips originating from the British English, but now the American English fries is frequently used. Again this change denotes a difference in product: an Australian chip is both a British crisp and American fries. The distinction is generally made through the adjective hot. Hot chips are also larger and thicker than American shoestring fries.
In a few cases such as zucchini, snow pea and eggplant, Australian English uses the same terms as American English, whereas the British use the equivalent French terms courgette, mangetout and aubergine. This is possibly due to a fashion that emerged in mid-19th Century Britain of adopting French nouns for foodstuffs, and hence the usage changed in Britain while the original terms were preserved in the (ex-)colonies.
There are also occasions when Australians use words or terms which are not common in other forms of English. For example, Australia uses the botanical name capsicum for what the Americans would call (red or green) bell peppers and the British (red or green) peppers. Perhaps this is in order to contrast table pepper (berries of genus Piper) from so-called "hot peppers" (larger fruits of genus Capsicum).
Australians use the term rockmelon where North Americans would use the term cantaloupe, although in Victoria and Tasmania both terms are used. However, in recent times nationwide supermarket chain Coles has been known to label the product cantaloupe .
In Australian English, dried fruits are given different names according to their variety, and generally raisins (grapes) are largest, sultanas (grapes) are intermediate, while currants are smallest.
In Australian English tomato sauce is the name given to what is known as ketchup in other dialects. However, Ketchup with its slightly sweeter taste, is still sold in many grocery stores and is common in fast found outlets such as McDonalds. Other sauces made from tomatoes are generally referred to by names related to their uses, such as barbeque and pasta sauce.
Coffee is also worthy of mention, since Australians have devised unique terms, such as flat white, (similar to caffè latte). Other terms include short black, (espresso) and long black, (espresso diluted with water, i.e. Americano). Since the mid-1980s other varieties of coffee have also become popular, although these have generally adopted names used in North America and/or Europe.
As in British English, the colourless, slightly lemon-flavoured, carbonated drink known in North America and elsewhere under brand names such as Sprite and 7 Up is called lemonade, while the more strongly-flavoured drink known as lemonade in North America that is typically made of lemon juice and sugar is sometimes referred to as lemon squash, or sometimes traditional lemonade, particularly in carbonated form.
The carbonated drink commonly called sarsparilla in Australia is a type of root beer, named after the sarsparilla root from which root beer is made.
Australians also often refer to McDonald's restaurants as Maccas, to the point that the corporation itself refers to itself verbally as such in advertising (but not in writing).
Cheap, unbranded Australian wine is called "cleanskin" wine, after the term for unbranded cattle.
A portable cooler; usually made of metal, plastic and/or polystyrene foam; is called an esky. This is a genericised trademark from the trade name Esky. Through rhyming slang this gives jaidyn (for the same device) in reference to murdered baby Jaidyn Leskie.
Beer glasses
Not only have there been a wide variety of measures in which beer is served in pubs in Australia, the names of these glasses differ from one area to another. However, the range of glasses has declined greatly in recent years.
| Names of beer glasses in various Australian cities[n 1][n 2][n 3] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity[n 4] | Sydney | Canberra | Darwin | Brisbane | Adelaide | Hobart | Melbourne | Perth | |
| 115 ml (4 fl oz) | – | – | – | – | - | small beer | foursie | shetland | |
| 140 ml (5 fl oz) | pony | – | – | pony | pony | – | horse/pony | pony | |
| 170 ml (6 fl oz) | – | – | – | – | butcher[n 5] | six (ounce) | – | bobbie/six | |
| 200 ml (7 fl oz) | seven | – | seven | beer | butcher | seven (ounce) | glass | glass | |
| 285 ml (10 fl oz) | middy | middy / half pint | handle | pot[n 6] | schooner[n 7] | ten (ounce) | pot | middy / half pint | |
| 350 ml (12 fl oz) | schmiddy[n 8] | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 425 ml (15 fl oz) | schooner | schooner | schooner | schooner | pint[n 7] | fifteen / schooner | schooner | schooner[n 9] | |
| 570 ml (20 fl oz) | pint | pint | pint | pint | imperial pint[n 7] | pint | pint | pint | |
Notes:
|
References: | ||||||||
Sport
To barrack, invariably a sporting team (typically rugby league or Australian rules football), for example, in Australian English means to hoot or cheer in support of something. Cognate with the US "root". For example: "who do you barrack for?" Almost the exact opposite of the (now rare) British usage of barrack, that is to denigrate: to jeer or hoot against something, such as a sporting team.
Cricket
The game of cricket is immensely popular in Australia and has contributed a rich vein of slang to Australian English. Some of this is shared with rival cricketing nations, like the English and the New Zealanders.
Australians can be bowled over (taken by surprise), stumped (nonplussed) or clean bowled or alternatively hit for six (completely defeated). When answering questions, one can play a straight bat (or a dead bat) (give a non-committal answer) or let that one through to the keeper or shoulder arms (dodge the question), particularly if they are on a sticky wicket (in a tight situation). The questioner in turn can send down a bouncer, a googly, a flipper or a yorker (difficult questions to varying degrees). Alternatively, the question could be a long hop or a dolly — an easy question that person being questioned can use to his or her advantage. The expression "to bat for the other side" is commonly used in respect of gay men or lesbians, and is not necessarily a pejorative.
Football
The word football or its shortened form footy is used by Australians for several different codes of football or the ball used to play any of them. Australians generally fall into four camps when it comes to the use of the word.
- In most of the Australian states, the word "football" usually refers to Australian rules football (also known simply as Australian football or "Aussie Rules"). In these States there is little or no popular differentiation between the two kinds of rugby football.
- In the States of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, most people refer to rugby league simply as "football". Rugby union is known simply as "rugby". Australian rules is often known in these areas as "AFL" (a name which, strictly speaking, refers to the main governing body, the Australian Football League).
- In areas in which all three codes are popular, especially the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory and the Riverina (south-western NSW), the word "football" is rarely used, and the names "league", "rugby" and "Aussie rules"/"AFL" (or just "rules") are used, to avoid confusion.
- Association football is generally known as soccer in Australia. In 2005, the governing body changed its name to Football Federation Australia. Other media sources (especially in New South Wales and Queensland) now also refer to the game as "football".
- In Australia, American football, which has a small following, is known as gridiron.
- Players, officials and followers of Australian rules football, have devised many unique concepts, terms, slang and nicknames. Some of these, such as footy, Grand Final and State of Origin have entered wider Australian usage, even among followers of other codes of football.
See also
Vehicles
Work vehicles
In Australian English the term ute, short for utility vehicle, refers to a car-like vehicle with a tray back, possibly with sides, a rear gate and/or a removable cover or any small truck. The term is generally cognisant with pickup in most countries; Australian-made Holden and Ford utes are based on family car chassis, and are normally much smaller than North American pickup trucks. However, all imported pickups are also known as utes in Australia.
Truck (rather than lorry) has been the only term for heavy goods vehicles in Australia since World War II. Four wheel drive, which is often abbreviated in writing as 4WD, is the usual name for the class of vehicles known elsewhere as SUVs, as well as utes with 4WD capability. These are called Toorak Tractors in Melbourne. In contrast to American English, neither utes nor passenger 4WD vehicles are usually regarded as being trucks in Australia.
There are a variety of terms for large and/or articulated trucks, depending on the type of cargo area, size/length, number of axles/wheels and so on. A single trailer articulated truck (typically with 32 wheels in Australia) is known as a semi-trailer or semi (Template:IPAAusE not /'se.mɑe/ as in the USA), an articulated truck with two trailers (typically with 50 tyres) is known as a B-Double. The largest of all articulated trucks are road trains, common on outback highways, which have at least three trailers and often more. In all articulated truck configurations, the powered vehicle at the front is invariably known as a prime mover.
Police vehicles
The panel vans used by police forces are known in most parts of Australia as paddywagons or as black marias (although this term is also used to refer to the vans used to transport prisoners between prison and courts), in accordance with international usage. However, in Melbourne as in other parts of Victoria they are often also called divvy vans, an abbreviation of the archaic Victoria Police jargon divisional van. The staccato chant of "You're going home in the back of a divvy van" (followed by clapping) can occasionally be heard when a crowd is nearby one of these vehicles, or when a person is led away by the police at a sporting or other large event. In Sydney, some people refer to similar vehicles as bull wagons and in the Riverina they are known as bundy wagons.
Large special purpose police vans, generally on truck chassis, which have facilities to test the blood alcohol levels of suspected drunk drivers, are known as booze buses.
Military slang
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is made up of the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Each have their own distinct traditions but share a defence force culture. This culture includes Australian military slang. Some words, such as digger, meaning a soldier, have become widely used by Australians in general. However, most slang used in the ADF is restricted to its personnel, or is widely understood outside Australia.
Old, declining or expired slang
Many distinctive Australian words have been driven to or near to extinction in recent decades under the homogenising influence of mass media and imported culture, because of changes in fashion, or have fallen into disuse as society changes. Those who like or use these words regret their passing but informal vocabulary is by nature ephemeral. Others who use these words do so ironically.
Rhyming slang
A common feature of traditional Australian English was rhyming slang, based on Cockney rhyming slang and imported by migrants from London in the 19th century. Rhyming slang consists of taking a phrase, usually of two words, which rhymes with a commonly used word, then using the second word of the phrase to represent the word. For example "Captain Cook" rhymes with "look", so to "have a captain cook" or to "have a captain" means to "have a look".
Rhyming slang was often used to create euphemistic terms for obscene words. In recent years this feature of Australian English has declined under the impact of mass popular culture.
See also
- Australian English
- Australian English word use
- List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin
- List of Australian place names of Aboriginal origin
External links
- ABC Radio National, 1999, Lingua Franca, "Australian English: Australian Identity..."
- Australian National Dictionary Centre
- Australian Word Map (Australian regionalisms)
- Aussie English for beginners — the origins, meanings and a quiz to test your knowledge at the National Museum of Australia.
- ABC National Radio, "Mate, What Next?
- Macquarie Dictionary
- English Language discussions: Australian English Vocabulary
- World English Organisation