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Badger!


An expression uttered by young men after farting. It is followed quickly by a whistling noise. This utterance prevents other young men who are offended by the fart from hitting them or carrying out other retribution. It's a kind of "Barleys" for a particular circumstance: Fart. "Badger". Whistle. Compare slugs, vince.

Contributor's comments: Never heard of this one either - where do you come up with these words?

Editor's comments: We don't "come up with" the terms. It is the noble users from all over Australia who come up with them and then submit them to the site.

Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] After a fart, one says 'badger' and whistles in order to avoid being pummelled.

Contributor's comments: Never heard of badger in the context that you suggest, would check that it is a Perth regionalism.

Contributor's comments: Yep, you are dead right. Badger and a whistle prevent the farter from being attacked. It was used extensively in the television production industry as I remember. Think it was Crawfords in the 1970s.

Contributor's comments: Remember it being used in Adelaide Hills, then more in Aussie pub in London by most Aussies.

Contributor's comments: Badger is used by someone who has just farted, to let people around know it was them.

Editor's comments: Can anyone explain the origin of this usage? And, why the whistle?

Contributor's comments: I went to Hadfield High in the mid-60's and most of the boys participated in the fart - 'badger' - whistle routine. If you were quick enough you would hit the offender with your pointing finger knuckle somewhere on the upper arm or back before he could whistle. Or else you would start tickling them as soon as they said Badger so they couldn't whistle.

Contributor's comments: badger is called by a person who has just farted: "Badger!"

Contributor's comments: The first and only time that I heard this word (prior to seeing it here) was from a university friend from the Melbourne suburb of Glenroy. After I stopped laughing, he explained the origin (as described above) and insisted that it was common practice in his school.

Contributor's comments: Hadn't heard of this one, but used slugs and vince as a kid at school age.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in north east Vic and as far as I knew 'Badger' was a phrase yelled when someone, or someone's mate was getting lucky!

Contributor's comments: In the several SA Primary Schools I attended in the fifties, licking your finger and putting it in the air was a sort of barleys against a recent fart, which could be undone by someone else saying " a fox smells its own hole first".

badger


noun a wombat.

Contributor's comments: Never used in SA as far as I know.

Contributor's comments: There is a hill in Tasmania called Badger Hill. I never realised until a couple of years ago that it meant wombat.

Contributor's comments: Badger is used on Flinders Island to refer to wombats, also echidnas are porcupines.

Contributor's comments: Wombat. Usage mainly rural.

Contributor's comments: My father uses this word quite frequntly when refering to wombats. It would also seem to have been a common word for wombat on King Island. There, there is a beach called the 'badgerbox' reputedly for the number of wombats caught there by the early sealers.

Contributor's comments: When we first moved to Tasmania in the 1960s all the people around us referred to wombats as 'badgers' - This entirely confused my Welsh mother who had no inkling that the black and white UK animal lived in Tasmania. It took us a while to work out that it meant wombats, but Mum was still wildly excited, because to her they were even more exotic. We decided it was because of the defensive armory of wombats, their aggression and territoriality, and their burrows, that some resemblance was apparent between the two.

Contributor's comments: I hadn't ever heard the word 'badger' for wombat when growing up in a small Tasmanian town. It was one of the first things that struck me when I began my first job teaching in a country school - all the kids used it ...

Contributor's comments: 'Badger' has been used to refer to wombats for many years (probably since transportation). At Nubeena (near Port Arthur) there is still a Badger creek, Badger bay and another 'Badgerbox' although this refers to a small shack built near Badger Ck. Presumably due to the similarities of the wombat and the English badger.