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Numerous idiomatic phrases occur in Australian usage, some more historical than contemporary in usage. Send her down, Hughie is an example of surfie slang. Australian Football League spectators use the term "white maggot" (derived from their formerly white uniforms) towards umpires at games. [31]
The Australian National Dictionary: Australian Words and Their Origins is a historical dictionary of Australian English, recording 16,000 words, phrases, and meanings of Australian origin and use. The first edition of the dictionary, edited by W. S. Ramson, was published in 1988 by Oxford University Press ; the second edition was edited by ...
This is a list of English words derived from Australian Aboriginal languages. Some are restricted to Australian English as a whole or to certain regions of the country. Others, such as kangaroo and boomerang , have become widely used in other varieties of English , and some have been borrowed into other languages beyond English.
In Victorian era slang used by criminals, "gammon" was to swindle someone or cheat them, [23] used for example in the sense of creating a distraction while pickpocketing; or, more generally, nonsense, "humbug". [24] Its origin has been variously thought to be related to leg of cured ham known as gammon or the game of backgammon. [23] [25]
Graffiti on van with the expression "she'll be right" above the windscreen. She'll be right (often followed by a friendly term of address such as mate) is a frequently used idiom in Australian and New Zealand culture that expresses the belief that "whatever is wrong will right itself with time", which is considered to be either an optimistic or apathetic outlook.
Note: As "Australian Aboriginal" is not a distinct language, but rather a collective term for a large group of languages, this category is useful as a holding place for all words with an origin in the different Aboriginal languages.
Down on His Luck, painted by Frederick McCubbin in 1889, depicts a melancholic swagman "on the Wallaby". Before motor transport became common, the Australian wool industry was heavily dependent on itinerant shearers who carried their swags from farm to farm (called properties or "stations" in Australia), but would not in general have taken kindly to being called "swagmen".
[1] [6] For example, bikie (a motorcycle, or motorbike club member), does not imply a bicycle in a small or childish sense as it may in other English dialects. In Australian English, diminutives are usually formed by taking the first part of a word, and adding an ending such as a, o, ie, or y. Sometimes, no ending is added. [1]