It’s been a tough couple of years for high school graduates across Australia. Learning from home, cancelled school formals and exams with the added stress of the Covid-19 pandemic have made their last year of school a challenge. That’s why schoolies is this week’s Word of the Week. Schoolies is a week or so of holiday … Read more
This week we shine a spotlight on a quintessential piece of Aussie slang, a word famous the world over: sheila. A sheila is a woman. In use since the 1830s, sheila has its origin in a generic use of the common Irish girl’s name. As pointed out by former Macquarie Chief Editor Sue Butler, sheila has many meanings … Read more
When’s the last time you made a barry, that is, a blunder or terrible mistake? The shortened form of Barry Crocker, barry is rhyming slang for shocker, which is commonly used in sport to mean a bad game. Barry Crocker was the Australian popular entertainer who took the title role in the Barry McKenzie films of the 1970s. We searched our … Read more
This week’s Aussie Word of the Week floated up the Bass Strait into Sydney Harbour where we scooped it up. A sort of reverse Sydney to Hobart if you will. The word is rum’un, a Tasmanian way to refer to an odd or eccentric person. An apt description for most of the Macquarie Dictionary crew. … Read more
Australia is a nation of gardeners. One of our favourite gardening pastimes is cutting down tall poppies. A tall poppy is a person who is pre-eminent in a particular field or a person with great status. Australians in general have a bit of a negative view of tall poppies, especially if they seem to get above … Read more
New month, new words. As we head towards the end of the year, our editors are keeping a close eye on our new words. The Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year is imminent after all. Will any of the six words below make the shortlist? Could one even take out the crown? These are the questions we ponder … Read more
Forty years ago, on 21 September 1981, the first edition of Australia’s national dictionary, the Macquarie Dictionary, was launched. A green and gold cocktail was invented for the occasion (see recipe below), the room was festooned with wattle, and eminent historian, Manning Clark, carried out the launching honours. The vice-chancellor of Macquarie University, Professor Edwin … Read more
We love a good swim, or flail, in the life-affirming waters that wash upon our fine Australian beaches. There are so many beaches to visist and so many costumes to choose from. The Macquarie Dictionary can help you with the latter because this week’s Word of the Week is budgie smugglers. Budgie smugglers is the … Read more
This week’s Aussie Word of the Week is jumbuck. A jumbuck is a name for a sheep. Formerly quite common, now virtually obsolete except for its prominent placement in the national song Waltzing Matilda, jumbuck originated from Aboriginal Pidgin English, where it seems as though it might have related to the phrase jump up. One theory has jumbuck as an Aboriginal … Read more
