Adam Hills

ABCs: T is for Trakkie Daks

It’s been a while but Aussie ABCs is back!

Other Aussies feel free to add to this list, but keep it clean, alright?

T
Tall poppy syndrome : the tendency to criticize successful people
Technicolor yawn : vomit
Tee-up : (verb) to set up (e.g. an appointment)
Thongs : cheap rubber backless sandals (You get embarrassing misunderstandings with this one); New Zealanders call these jandles, ‘ey?
Tickets, to have on oneself : to have a high opinion of oneself
Tinny : can of beer
Togs : swim suit
Too right! : definitely!
Top End : far north of Australia
Trackie daks/dacks : tracksuit pants – the uniform of suburban parents everywhere…
Trackies : track suit
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 (not used very often anymore).
Truckie : truck driver
True blue : patriotic
Tucker : food
Turps : turpentine, alcoholic drink
Turps, hit the : go on a drinking binge

Aussie ABCs: ratbags & snags

   

Well it’s time to learn more of how we aussies abuse the English language. Today is brought to you by the letters R & S…

R is for

 

 

• Rapt [or wrapped] : pleased, delighted (I’m rapt that you came to visit me and brought me a box of chocolates)
• Ratbag : mild insult
• Raw prawn, to come the : to con or stretch the truth, to be generally disagreeable
• I Reckon! : you bet! Absolutely!
• Ya Reckon?!: “do you really believe that what you’re saying is true?”
• Rellie or relo : family relative
• Ripper : great, fantastic – “it was a ripper party”
• Right, she’s : it’ll be all right
• Right, that’d be : Accepting bad news as inevitable. (”I went fishing but caught nothing.” “Yeah, that’d be right.”)
• Rock up : to turn up, to arrive – “we rocked up at their house at 8pm”
• Row: [rhymes with cow] An argument, shouting match, loud disagreement
• Rubber: An eraser, for the Americans in my audience. Australian Architects working with Americans need to be careful of using this one in the office.

*Remember, those of you of North American or Irish persuasion, that Aussies tend to drop the letter “r” from the middle of a word. Hence anger is pronounced anga here and my city – though spelled Melbourne – is actually pronounced Melb’n.

S is for

• Sanger : [pronounced sanga] a sandwich
• Skull/Skol : to drink a beer/coke in a single draught without taking a breath
• Shonky : dubious, underhanded. E.g. a shonky practice, shonky business etc
• Servo : petrol station, gas station
• Shout: to pay for (”I’ll shout lunch” “No it’s my shout today”)
• Sook: [rhymes with look, cook] Noun. A soft, timid or cowardly person. A frequent complainer.
• Sooking: Verb. Whining, particularly about petty or inconsequential matters.
• Smoko : smoke or coffee break
• Snag : a sausage
• Spit the dummy : to get very upset at something
• Squizz (noun) : look – “take a squizz at this”
• Stoked : very pleased
• Stuffed, I feel : I’m tired
• Stuffed, it’s: It is broken, it’s worn out
• Sunnies : sunglasses

C is for Chrissie, D is for Dunny

Still more Aussie idioms to help you decode Australian blogs and other media.

C

• Cactus: not functioning, ruined, messed up, dead. [e.g. Oh no! The TV's cactus! How am I going to watch the cricket?!]
• Chrissie: Christmas. Aussies love turning the end of words into an “ee” sound… No it’s not babyish!
• Chunder: vomit, both noun and verb.
• Crook: sick, faulty. [e.g.s - I can't come out, my kids are crook; and Oh no, this is a crook TV! How am I going to watch the cricket?!]

D

• Dag: silly person, a term of affection despite its origin (dirty wool around a sheep’s bum) and its adjectival use below.
• Daggy: corny, nerdy, out-of-fashion.
• Daks: trousers.
• Dummy-spit: tantrum, angry tirade.
• Dunny: toilet. You may as well get used to me using this word, there’ll inevitably be a lot of toilet jokes on this site.

Well, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go chunder in the dunny now; my guts are a bit crook and they haven’t been right since Chrissie.

A is for Aussie…

Ok, an admission: I’m Australian. And proud of it. This means that in a global medium like a blog, if I write like I speak, I’m prone to drop in Aussie idioms that mean nothing (& sound wierd) to blokes (men) from other countries.

So let’s slowly work our way through the Australian language a letter at a time. Then you’ll have something to refer to when decoding my stories…

A is for -

• Aussie: pronounced Ozzie (as in Osbourne) not Ossie as I often hear it pronounced in the USA. As I’ll show you at the other end of the alphabet, we Aussies love the “z” sound and put it in as many words as possible (e.g. mozzies rather than mosquitos). To be Aussie, you have to speak a form of English, shun class-consciousness, believe in egalitarianism, drop the “r” at the end of any word (replacing it with “ah”), use the word ”mate” for people you like and dislike, AND eat Vegemite and like it! 
• Ankle-biter: small child. I’m not sure if this is exclusively Australian but we use it a lot anyway.

Any Aussies out there feel free to contribute a couple more that are terms Australian Dads are likely to use.