Blogs

Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here. This week we look at you’ll do. 

Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here. This week we look at westie. 

There are a number of colloquial definitions for shocker in the Macquarie Dictionary. Of course, we are referring to something dreadfully bad. Here in Australia, it is commonly used in sport for a bad game. Either one that has been watched or one competed in. As in, had a shocker last Saturday. This has of … Read more

We have all had a parent refer to a doodad, thingummyjig, do-hickey or dooverlackie. But the most common replacement word for thing in the Australian vernacular, is doover. We have spoken about these types of words before in our blog on thingummyjig. The word is thought to have its origins in British English of the … Read more

The word eggcorn was coined in 2003 by British-American linguist, Geoffrey Pullum, born 1945, from such a substitution of eggcorn for acorn, taken as a type. 

Dinkum appears earliest in the phrase fair dinkum (1890 in Australia, but 1881 in Britain), and not as a separate word until 1905. It originates in the British dialects of Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, where it meant ‘work’, or ‘a due share of work’. So if you did your fair dinkum, it meant you did your fair share of … Read more

There are a lot of different meanings for the word go. At the moment of writing, there are 127 in the Macquarie Dictionary Online alone! But this week’s featured word is focused on the sense meaning ‘an attempt’. As in, “I’ll give anything a go.” This is a word used ubiquitously and unthinkingly by the … Read more

Here in Australia (and in most of the English-speaking world), there are two separate meanings for narc and nark. The former is an abbreviation of narcotics officer. And the latter meaning a police informer. While it is interesting that they both involve law enforcement, there is not necessarily a correlation between the two coinages. While … Read more

To pike is a colloquialism unique to Australia, meaning to ‘go quickly’. And a piker is the type of person who would opt out of an arrangement or challenge or not do their fair share. Often, at the last moment. There is a particular stigma associated with pikers, from people who are stood up at engagements … Read more

Some of the biggest debates in our fair nation revolve around different ways we refer to classic foods. Take, for example, the humble sausage sandwich, or sausage in bread, or sausage sizzle… To really rile a person up, you could refer to a potato cake as a potato scallop, or a potato fritter even. But that controversy is to remain unaddressed today. Another … Read more