AUSSIE LINGO
AUSSIE LINGO
Maybe it’s because so many nationalities live in Australia, or maybe it’s just to emphasis the laid back nature of the country, but either way Australia has a wonderful collection of jargon.
You’ll find a lot words that are insults in different countries are actually used here not only as insults, but also as terms of endearments (as in ‘You daft bugger,’ and ‘You silly bastard.’) Certainly a lot of phrases have come from our history, but I think the majority come from simply taking the first syllable of a word and bunging an ‘o’ or ‘ie’ sound to the end of it.
Here's a selection of the most common Aussie slang - hopefully it will help travellers have at least a vague idea of what we're talking about. And you thought we just spoke English…
A
Ace!
- ‘Excellent!’ ‘Great!’
Aerial Pingpong
- Aussie Rule Football
Amber fluid
- Beer
Ambo
- Ambulance
Ankle biter
- A child
Arvo - Afternoon
Aussie
- Australian
Aussie Salute - The movement of your hand when waving away flies.
B
Bail
- To cancel, or not turn up.
Banana bender
- A person from Queenslander
Barbie
- Barbecue
Barrack for
-To support (as in a football team)
Bastard
- A term of endearment.
Bathers
- Swimsuit
Beaut
- ‘Great!’
Beauty! - ‘Great!’ (As in ‘You beauty’)
Big smoke
- City
Bikkie
- Biscuit
Billabong
- A pond in a dry riverbed
Billy
- Teapot, usually used in the Outback on a fire.
Bingle
- A car accident.
Bitzer
- A dog that’s not a pure breed. (As in ‘bits of this and that’.)
Black Stump
- The middle of nowhere, a long way away.
Bloke
- Man
Bloody
- Very
Bloody oath
- ‘Definitely’.
Bludger
- A lazy person
Blue
- Fight or argument
Bodgy
- Of dubious quality
Bog in
- ‘Start eating.’
Bog standard
- Average, nothing special.
Bogan
- Somebody who doesn’t mind if they look a mess.
Bonzer
- ‘Great!’
Boomer
- A large, male kangaroo.
Booze Bus
- A police van used to catch drunk drivers
Boozer
- Pub
Bottle Shop
- A place to buy alcohol, also called a Bottle-O
Brekky
- Breakfast
Brizzie
- Brisbane, QLD
Buckley’s chance
- ‘Not a chance.’
Budgie Smugglers
- Speedos/men’s swimwear
Bush
- The Outback.
BYO
- Bring Your Own (usually relates to going out and taking your own drinks).
C
Cactus - Dead, Broken, as in, ‘to be cactus.
Choc A Bloc – Full
Choccy Bikkie - Chocolate Biscuit
Chook - Chicken
Chrissie - Christmas
Cobber - A very good friend.
Coldie - Beer, also referred to as a ‘A Cold One.’
Coppers - Policemen
Corker
- Used to describe something good, as in ‘a real corker.’
Crikey - ‘Gosh!’ ‘Wow!’
Crook - Ill, angry or badly made.
Crow eater
- Somebody from South Australia.
D
Dag - Someone who’s a bit of a nerd or geek.
Daks - Trousers
Deadset - True
Digger - Australian solider
Dill - A twit
Dingbat - A twit, dill or drongo.
Dinkydi - Genuine
Doovalacky - What you call something when you can’t remember it’s name.
Drongo - A person who’s being a fool or twit.
Dunny - Toilet
E
Esky - An insulated container that keeps things cold (usually beers)
F
Fair Dinkum - Honestly
Footy - Australian Rules football
Fremantle Doctor - A cool, afternoon sea-breeze in Western Australia
Freo - Fremantle, WA.
Frothy - Beer
G
G’day - Hello
Gabba - Brisbane cricket ground
Going off - Used to describe a place that’s busy, and being visited by lots of people.
Good On Ya - ‘Way to go! Good work.’
Grog - Alcohol
Grouse - Great! Excellent!
H
Hard yakka - Hard work
Hoon - A person driving badly and speeding.
L
Larrikin
- Somebody who likes playing around and being silly.
Legless
- Someone who is really drunk.
Lend of
- To tease somebody, as in ‘to have a lend of you.’
Lippy
- Lipstick
Lollies
- Sweets
M
Make a blue
- To make a mistake.
Mozzie
- Mosquito
N
No Drama
- ‘That’s okay.'
No Worries
- ‘That’s okay.’
Nuddy
- Naked, as in, 'in the nuddy.'
O
Ocker
- Australian
Oldies
- Parents
Op shop
- A second-hand, charity shop
Outback
- The centre of Australia.
Oz
- Australia
P
Plonk
- Cheap wine.
Pom, pommie
- Somebody from England.
R
Rack Off
- ‘Go away! Leave me alone!’
Rellie / Rello
- Relatives
Ridgy-didge
- Real, genuine, honest
Ripper
- ‘That’s great!’
Roo
- A kangaroo
Runners
- Trainers, sneakers
S
Sandgroper
- Somebody who lives in Western Australia
Servo - A service station or garage
Sheila - A woman
She’ll be right
- ‘Everything will be okay.’
Shoot through - To leave
Sickie - To take a sick-day off work.
Skull - To drink a beer quickly.
Slab - A carton of beers.
Snag - Sausage
Spit the dummy
- To get very upset about something.
Strewth - ‘WOW!’
Sticky beak
- A nosy person or to be nosy.
Stoked - Happy, pleased
Stubby - A bottle of beer
Sunbake
- Sunbathe
Sunnies - Sunglasses
Swag - Single bed you can roll up, a bit like a sleeping bag.
T
Tinny - A can of beer or small boat.
Thongs - Flip Flops
Togs
- Swimwear
Top End
- Far north of Australia
True blue
- Australian or genuine, as in, ‘a true blue, dinkydi Aussie.’
Tucker - Food
Two-up
- A gambling game played with two coins.
U
Ugg boots
- Sheepskin boots, also called Uggs and Uggies
W
Winge
- To complain
Woop woop
- Rural Australia
Wuss
- A nervous, shy, sensitive person.
