macquarie

This week’s Macquarie Word of the Week is dedicated to all Ned Flanders fans. A mollydooker is a slang term for a left-handed person. In use since the 1930s, mollydooker probably came from British dialect brought to Australia in the early twentieth century.  Left-handed people sometimes get a bad rap in Australian English. For instance, … Read more

This week we are travelling over topography, out of our dense city centres to the backblocks. Part of Aussie slang since the 1860s, backblocks is a term for the outer suburbs of a city…

There are new words being born every day, mostly to do with COVID-19 and the many changes this is bringing to our daily lives and to the planet in general. But closer to home (in a lot of countries), we’ve already got quite a few words for that in-demand product selling out in supermarkets across … Read more

Welcome to our new words blog where we cover new and trending words and consider their worthiness for inclusion in the Macquarie Dictionary.  This month, we have a raft of words related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It seems inevitable that coronavirus-related lingo would find its way into our vocabulary, but the creativity and humour of … Read more

Every so often a new piece of slang gains momentum in our culture. Thanks to a recent popular song, smoko became one such piece of slang propelled from hazy beginnings into the spotlight…  

Every year on April 25th, Australians pause to commemorate Anzac Day and all those who served their country in armed conflict…

Did you know you can see Madonna’s bra from office buildings in Sydney? You can even drive under it! Madonna’s bra is a cheeky nickname for the ANZAC bridge, coined for the bridge’s supposed resemblance to the pointy bra formerly worn by the pop star Madonna. (Not to be confused with the ‘bra or Maroubra in Sydney’s … Read more

Picture this. You’re waiting patiently at the traffic lights when your local hoon pulls out across the intersection with a screech of tires and a puff of smoke. Here we go, you think, as the hoon spins up a doughnut. It’s like something out of a dash cam video.  A doughnut, donut or doughie is a circular pattern made … Read more

The Macquarie Dictionary is constantly being reviewed and updated to make sure the words and definitions being offered are the most relevant possible. We appreciate any feedback on posts or suggestions of new words (we love them in fact). We have had a number of queries about COVID-19 and other words to describe reactions and … Read more

Then and than are commonly confused and it’s no wonder why – they sound very similar, are spelt very similarly and both come from the Old English roots. In fact, up until about the 17th century, there was only a single spelling for both senses! So it’s no wonder these words can often get mixed … Read more