Slanguage

[Keith Webb]

We Aussies have as good a knack for mangling the English language as we do for thrashing the poms at cricket.

Just found this amusing site on the subject.

Here are a couple at random:

Shank's pony

to travel on foot.

shark bait

a person that swims further out to sea than others.

scumbag

a low down despicable person.

cackleberry

egg.

cactus

dead; ruined; spoiled.

cake hole

mouth.

call 'Ralph'

to vomit.

camp as a row of tents

a homosexual male.

This post gets smiles out of me Keefy. Thanks!

Originally posted by Keith Webb
We Aussies have as good a knack for mangling the English language as we do for thrashing the poms at cricket.

Just found this amusing site on the subject.

That link doesn't work for me Keith

[DaveCox]

I've just read the 'rhyming slang' and some other sections on that site, and I guess your ancestors took a load of these expressions with them when they got exported! LOL, a lot of those are recognisable from here, especially for Londoners. Equally a lot of them though are genuinely Oz.

PS - I notice that the cricket gets a mention, but not the Rugby World Cup.

Originally posted by Keith Webb
We Aussies have as good a knack for mangling the English language as we do for thrashing the poms at cricket.

However, you will have doubtless noted the current performance elsewhere in the world, Oz next perhaps. . . . . . . . . .

Now, for the benefit of the assembled people herein, perhaps you can explain the derivation of "The Ashes" for which we play.

Just found this amusing site on the subject.

Pretty tame and old hat, loads of stuff with "beef" in it left out, no reference to "uphill gardener" or "air biscuits" either.

Could do better. . . . . . . . . .

R.

[Keith Webb]

Originally posted by FV623
However, you will have doubtless noted the current performance elsewhere in the world, Oz next perhaps. . . . . . . . . .

Now, for the benefit of the assembled people herein, perhaps you can explain the derivation of "The Ashes" for which we play.
Pretty tame and old hat, loads of stuff with "beef" in it left out, no reference to "uphill gardener" or "air biscuits" either.

Could do better. . . . . . . . . .

R.

Perhaps you could favour us with some slang, Richard? The Beefing ones I know... but the uphill gardner?

As for the ashes... it's amazing so much importance is placed on some ash from old wickets, isn't it...
And I don't mean ash from cancer-sticks or coffin nails

[Keith Webb]

Classic FM Breakfast
Wordification Competition: February 2004





Listeners were invited to create a NEW word, and define a concise meaning for it, to win an autographed copy of Word of the Day by Kel Richards (with interruptions from Clive).

The winning entries were:
Misunderheard: (Seven year old son invented in 1971) We had finished breakfast and as our son was asking to leave the table we asked if he would like another glass of milk. Yes he answered, so Mum dutifully poured it. When asked why he left it after saying he wanted another glass, he answered 'you must have misunderheard me.' Adrienne, Armidale NSW
Dishlexia: the inability to correctly place dishes in the dishwasher Malcolm, Canterbury VIC
Yourgrain: Headache, often accompanied by rage or nausea, brought on by contact with an unwelcome person. Andrew, Aranda ACT
Retortelate: The sharp & witty comeback you think of about 2 hours after you left the party/office/pub Donella, Aldgate SA
Namentia: A lapse of memory – forgetting the name of a person you are talking about or (worse still) the name of a person you are talking too. Daphne, Toowoomba QLD
Laudaphobia: Fear of applauding during dramatic pause in an unknown symphony. See also premature appreciation. Gary, Sunbury VIC
Decellulate: to burst the bubbles on bubblewrap. Mary, Camberwell VIC
Latterati: A group of well-dressed and (usually) well-off sophisticates know to frequent the coffee shops of bohemian districts of Melbourne and other cities. Derived from Literati and Glitterati, but with a distinctive Australian flavour. Gordon, Northcote VIC
Bludgie: A partner that doesn’t work, but is kept as a pet. Valda, Casuarina NT
Benchioners: Elderly people sitting on seats in the park. Margaret, Blackheath NSW
Weathernesia: A clinical condition that prevents the sufferer from hearing the forecast for his or her particular locality. This condition is particularly acute when lists of forecasts are read. Chris, Russell Lea NSW
Pleufume: Clive wished for a word to describe the magnificence that you breathe in when rain begins to fall, for example on dry earth. From the French Pluevez – to rain, and perfume – an agreeable scent. Elisa, Illawong NSW
Roundalout: the idiot who either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about roundabout etiquette, but simply plows through without slowing down. Dan, Mona Vale NSW
Tard: The small piece of folded paper placed under a table leg to stop the table from rocking on an uneven surface (from the letters of Temporary Anti-Rocking Device). Neil, Williamstown VIC
Bungeekids: Older offspring that keep returning home to live. Joan, Patterson Lakes VIC

These amusing new words were seen on the Australian ABC FM website

Originally posted by Keith Webb
Perhaps you could favour us with some slang, Richard? The Beefing ones I know... but the uphill gardner?

As for the ashes... it's amazing so much importance is placed on some ash from old wickets, isn't it...
And I don't mean ash from cancer-sticks or coffin nails

Ah, yes.

We'll scrub round the beef things, ladies present y'know.

Uphill gardener - homosexual. You figure it out. . . . . . .
I will not use "gay", this is a hijacked word. The Concise Oxford Dictionary gives it as "light-hearted and carefree, brightly coloured, showy."

Bottle, bottle out, lost his bottle - loose one's nerve, bottle of beer from the Courage Brewery, one of the first bottled beer providers.

Crumpet - pretty girl (tasty)

Scrubber - possibly "Sheila" in colloquial Oz slang.

Pelmet - very short skirt.

Bristols - Try rhyming with Bristol City. . . . . . . .

Puppies plums - something very good, the dogs b***ocks.

Cough in your rompers - see launch an air biscuit.

2 'n 6 - in a fix, trouble.

2 'n 8 - in a state.

Ackers - money.

Auntie - BBC

Badger - to bother incessantly

Belt - hit hard

Berk - rhymes with Berkeley Hunt (Foxhunting)

Betty Swollocks - hot and uncomfortable, a spoonerism.

Big girls blouse - a feeble and ineffectual person

Birmingham screwdriver - hammer

Boracic - no money, boracic lint ~ skint.

Chalfonts - gonads, Chalfont Hall ~ ball.

Pants - nonsense, rubbish, bad

etc, etc, it goes on and on. Lets not forget the Aussie definition of foreplay:
"Aw, you awake Sheila?"

Ah, the ashes then, although frankly I'd rather watch the grass grow, officially from Auntie's historical site:

Ashes to ashes

The British cricketer W G Grace, 1898. Many other great contests were born in the Victorian era. Cricket's rules had been laid down as early as 1744, but in 1861 an English touring team travelled down under for the first time. Seven years later a team of Aborigines toured England, although the first official Test match was not until 1877 when Australia beat England in Melbourne. An inauspicious start, but worse was to come. When Australia won a Test in England for the first time in 1882, The Sporting Times published the famous obituary:

In affectionate remembrance of English cricket which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P. N.B. The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.
The 'body' is reputed to be one of the bails, and England and Australia have played for the Ashes ever since.

Ooooo, that's nice, Mrs Notton has just brought me a mug of Rosy (Lee ~ tea), time for a off we go. . . . . .

R.

How about "Whacker", seems to have been a favourite OZ expression.
"Out of the Mulga" another expression I recall from "Slim and ???" a pair of cartoon characters I recall from OZ army papers.

Originally posted by Art Johnson
How about "Whacker", seems to have been a favourite OZ expression.
"Out of the Mulga" another expression I recall from "Slim and ???" a pair of cartoon characters I recall from OZ army papers.

You can see how it can go wrong, a "Wacker" (no h) to us is a vibrating compactor, usually made by Wacker - Germany.

Either a wacker plate:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...813576854&rd=1
or a trench wacker:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...813485533&rd=1

I can understand Mulga since its an Oz tree that grows in the most arid, dry areas.

R.

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Whacker = Wanker

Bob

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Out of the Mulga = out of the bush or from "beyond the black stump"

Bob

[Keith Webb]

The sidevalve V8 is known here as a "sidewhacker"

[Keith Webb]

Originally posted by Art Johnson
How about "Whacker", seems to have been a favourite OZ expression.
"Out of the Mulga" another expression I recall from "Slim and ???" a pair of cartoon characters I recall from OZ army papers.

Here's another favourite comic strip:



I have a few other episodes here.

[Tony Smith]

These are another form of great Aussie humour that often only those "In the Know" will find funny, while confusing the unitiated.

DILLIGAF: often found on bonnets of semi-trailer trucks and Hells Angel's t-shirts, but is famously the name of an Aust M113 APC that was in a street parade broadcast on TV, the commentators asking what DILLIGAF meant, to be told by the embarrassed military expert that it had something to do with Timor (Do I Look Like I Give A ****?)

LOMBARD: This type of person crops up all the time, most often at an auction/garage sale/swap meet and outbids everyone else, only to wreck/destroy/paint purple some unique item (Lots Of Money, But A Real Dickhead)

and there's more that I can't recall due to a relapse of
CRAFT Disease: A temporary prelude to Alzheimer's (Can't Remember A ****ing Thing)

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by FV623

Chalfonts - gonads

Another meaning of this is, "when you have a touch of the Chalfonts", you are suffering from Haemorroids. This comes from Chalfont St.Giles = piles

Richard

Originally posted by Tony Smith

LOMBARD: This type of person crops up all the time, most often at an auction/garage sale/swap meet and outbids everyone else, only to wreck/destroy/paint purple some unique item (Lots Of Money, But A Real Dickhead)

I wonder if that's from our Lombard Bank ~ banker ~ W/anchor.

and there's more that I can't recall due to a relapse of
CRAFT Disease: A temporary prelude to Alzheimer's (Can't Remember A ****ing Thing)

Ah, I know this one well. . . . . . . . . .


R.

Originally posted by Richard Farrant
Another meaning of this is, "when you have a touch of the Chalfonts", you are suffering from Haemorroids. This comes from Chalfont St.Giles = piles

Richard

As the old buffers in the RN will tell you:

"Hoke his yewsed for piles on piers, not haemorroids hon the harse-holes hov the harristocracy."

R.