In America we all know an ankle-biter is an obnoxious child, and avos are avocados. These are just a couple of Aussie slang words we have picked up and use daily. Aussie being a prime example of Australian Slang, we also know that “down under” is either Australia or New Zealand.
Mozzies are definitely the disease-carrying mosquitoes, but a billy is something you boil water in. A wombat is someone who eats shoots and leaves, and is probably just a vejjo (vegetarian).
Whatever you do in Australia, please don’t whinge (whine), as it is unsightly. You’d be better off getting a wobbly boot on (get drunk) than getting all wobbly (excited). Someone may be accused of having kangaroos loose in their top paddock if they appear a bit deranged.
If you have caught a wog, it is either the flu or a cold, definitely not an Indian. A wog is as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. Tall poppies are not where heroin comes from, these are successful people who must be subjected to daily criticism (tall poppy syndrome). Not a tall poppy? Then you are a sook (soft, tame and weak).
A schooner is a big beer in Queensland, and you would be called a banana bender if you lived there. If you’re from Western Australia you might be called a sandgroper. If you live south of Queensland you could be referred to as a “Mexican” oddly enough. But clearly, Tassies are Tasmanians, and if you don’t like them you can call them Taswegians. But don’t ask for a girl for a “mappa tassie,” she might slap you! A mappa tassie is a woman’s pubic hair.
Your mate (friend) may drive a ute (utility truck) in the outback, and I’m sure he brings along a tucker bag and cooler filled with many, many cold cans of tinny (beer). In some situations without enough fourexes (XXXX brand beer), or on a walkabout (a walk in the Outback that lasts for an indefinite amount of time), you could “go troppo” (escape to a condition of tropical madness).
So in parting I offer an “Aussie salute” (as I wave away the flies) and say, G’Day to you too! Here is a short list I have complied of my more favorite and well-used slang expressions:
Ankle biter – small child
Aussie – Australian
Aussie salute – to brush away flies with one’s hand
Avos – avocados
Banana bender – a person from Queensland
Barbie – barbecue
Bastard – term of endearment
Bathers – bathing suit
Battler – someone working hard and only just making a living
Bikkie – biscuit
Billabong – an ox-bow river or watering hole
Billy – pot for boiling water
Bingle – motor vehicle accident
Bities – biting insects
Bitzer – mongrel dog
Bizzo – business
Bloke – man, guy
Bog in – chow down
Bog standard – simple, unadorned
Bogged – stuck in mud or deep sand
Boomer – male kangaroo
Brekkie – breakfast
Bush – the outback
Bushie – bush resident
BYO – someplace where you have to bring your own booze
Cab Sav – Cabernet Sauvignon wine
Chokkie – chocolate
Chook – chicken
Chunder – vomit
Click – kilometre – “it’s over 100 clicks from here”
Cobber – friend
Down under – Australia and New Zealand
Drongo – Idiot
Earbashing – nagging, non-stop chatter
Fair dinkum – true, genuine
Fair go – a chance
Feral – a hippie
Footy – Australian Rules football
Fossick – search
Fossick – to prospect
Fossicker – prospector
G’Day – hello!
Get Stuffed! – Fuck You!
Give it a burl – try it, have a go
Gobsmacked – surprised, astounded
Good oil – a good idea
Good onya – good for you
Greenie – environmentalist
Grog – liquor, beer
Gutful of piss – drunk
Jackaroo – a male farm hand
Jillaroo – a female farm hand
Joey – baby kangaroo
Jug – electric kettle
Jumbuck – sheep
Knocker – somebody who criticises
Liquid laugh – vomit
Maccas – McDonald’s burgers
Mappa Tassie – map of Tasmania – a woman’s pubic area
Mate – buddy, friend
Mate’s rate – friend’s discount
Matilda – sleeping bag
Mexican – a person from the south of Oz
Milk bar – corner shop that sells takeaway food
Mozzie – mosquito
Muddy – mud crab
Mull – grass (cannabis)
Muster – round up sheep or cattle
Mystery bag – a sausage
Nasho – National Service (compulsory military service)
Naughty, have a – have sex
Never Never – the Outback
Nipper – young one
No drama – same as ‘no worries’
No worries! – no problem, covers everything
Not the full quid – not bright intellectually
Nuddy – nude
Nut out – hammer out or work out
O S– overseas
Off one’s face – drunk
Offsider – an assistant, helper
Oldies – parents
Outback – interior of Australia
Oz – Australia!
Piece of piss – easy task
Piker – a loner
Piss – beer
Plate, bring a – Instruction on party or BBQ invitation to bring your own foodIt doesn’t mean they’re short of crockery!
Plonk – cheap wine
Polly – politician
Pom, pommy – an Englishman
Pommy bastard – an Englishman
Pommy shower – using deodorant instead of taking a shower
Quid – money
Reckon! – you bet!
Rego – vehicle registration
Ridgy-didge – original, genuine
Road train – big truck with many trailers
Rollie – a cigarette that you roll yourself
Roo – kangaroo
Roo bar – stout bar fixed to the front of a vehicle to protect the car from damage when hitting kangaroos (or any wildlife) in the outback
Root – fuck (that turkey was rooted to death)
Root rat – somebody who is constantly looking for sex
Sandgroper – a person from Western Australia
Schooner – large beer glass in Queensland; medium beer glass in South Australia
Servo – petrol station
Shark biscuit – somebody new to surfing
She’ll be right – it’ll turn out okay
Sheila – a girl
Shout – your turn to buy a round of drinks
Slab – a carton of 24 bottles or cans of beer
Sleepout – house verandah converted to a bedroom
Sook – person or animal who is soft or tame
Station – a big farm/grazing property
Stoked – very pleased
Stonkered – drunk
Strine – Australian slang and pronunciation
Stubby – a 375mlbeer bottle
Stubby holder – polystyrene insulated holder for a stubby
Stuffed – fucked
Sunbake – sunbathe
Sunnies – sunglasses
Surfies – people who go surfing – usually more often than they go to work!
Swag – sleeping bag
Swaggie – swagman (person carrying a sleeping bag)
Swagman – tramp, hobo (person carrying a sleeping bag)
Tall poppies – successful people
Tall poppy syndrome – the tendency to criticize successful people
Taswegian – derogatory term for a person from Tasmania
Technicolor yawn – vomit
Tinny – can of beer
Togs – swim suit
Top End – far north of Australia
Troppo, gone – to have escaped to a state of tropical madness; to have lost the veneer of civilisation after spending too long in the tropics
Tucker – food
Tucker bag – food bag
You little Ripper! – a reaction to good news
Useful
as an ashtray on a motorbike (do you need an explanation?)
Ute – utility vehicle, Aussie-style pickup truck
Vedgies – vegetables
Vegemite – Salty Aussie food spread, a by product of beer
Vejjo – vegetarian
Walkabout – a walk in the Outback by Aborigines that lasts for an indefinite amount of time
Whinge – complain
White pointers – topless (female) sunbathers
Wobbly – excitable (she got all wobbly when I askedor drunk (he’s got a wobbly boot on…)
Wog – flu or trivial illness
Wombat – somebody who eats, roots and leaves (see also root)
Woop Woop – fabricated name for any unknown place (they live in Woop Woop)
Wowser – straight person, a prude, puritan, or spoilsport
Wuss – coward or nervous person
XXXX – pronounced Four X, brand of beer made in Queensland
~Martin Trip