macquarie

This week’s blog is cactus, that is, ruined, as in we aren’t going anywhere, the engine’s cactus. Someone in trouble is said to be in the cactus. No doubt referring to the dreaded prickly pear which once covered so much of the country, at least, before being eaten holus bolus by the cacto, the wondrous Cactoblastis cactorum moth which was introduced as a … Read more

A bunyip is a mythical Australian beast of amphibious nature that inhabits rivers and deep, dark pools, retreating to underwater caverns known as bunyip holes. They are so shy and stealthy that one has never yet been caught. The word for this animal is from the Aboriginal language Wembawemba of Victoria and Southern NSW. The bunyip is … Read more

This week’s Aussie slang Word of the Week is essential to the functioning of Australian society. Hospo is short for hospitality, the industry that employs millions of people in cafes, hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions, all of which have done it tough over the last year. This blog is dedicated to you, the hard-working hospo staff across the country.  What else … Read more

This week we are cruising around the traps. Relax, we haven’t set an ambush for you, rather, the traps refer to any place you frequent, as in I’ve seen him around the traps. Aussie slang since the 1930s, the traps originally referred to a route along which a person had laid traps which they then habitually … Read more

It’s normally pretty clear whether to use that or which in a sentence. But there is one situation where you might find yourself wondering whether you’ve chosen correctly. Consider the humble restrictive clause. It’s placed after a noun and serves to specify or identify it in an important way. In the following examples, the restrictive … Read more

With winter on the way, we travelled to the Snowy Mountains and dug these six new words out of the snow drifts.  Are you a cheugy? You better hope not. A cheugy is something or someone who follows outdated, sometimes basic trends. To avoid appearing basic, you might want to wrap up in cyber fashion, … Read more

Recently someone asked me, is the phrase home in on or hone in on something? As it turns out, this is a very common confusion! The verb ‘hone’ comes to us from Old English hān meaning stone or rock, and means to sharpen something e.g. to hone a razor or to improve by careful attention … Read more

A couple of years ago, we delved into the world of crude Australian sarcasm and examined the bluntest example we could find of this in … not here to fuck spiders. This, along with its circumspect cousins, … not here to put socks (or shoes) on caterpillars, and … not here to lick stamps are generally used to mean ‘well, I’m not … Read more

One of the consistent questions faced by Macquarie Dictionary editors is whether to include a word which is a trademark. In most cases, the answer to this question lies in establishing if the word is used generically to refer to any such product, and not just the one branded with the particular name. For example, … Read more

This week we want you to give our blog a fair crack of the whip as we explore fairness and it’s usage in Australian English.  Aussie slang is full of unique and entertaining ways to ask for fair treatment. To say you want a fair crack of the whip is to appeal for fairness. The oft … Read more