What does roots mean in australia

And thence to 'a person who does not make a fair contribution to a cost, enterprise etc. Niland writes in The Shiralee : 'Put the nips into me for tea and sugar and tobacco in his usual style.

The biggest bludger in the country'. In J. O'Grady writes: 'When it comes to your turn, return the "shout". Otherwise the word will spread that you are a "bludger", and there is no worse thing to be'. The term dole bludger i. An early example from the Bulletin encapsulates the derogatory tone: 'A genuine dole bludger, a particularly literate young man From the following year we have a citation indicating a reaction to the use of the term: Cattleman Rockhampton 'Young people are being forced from their country homes because of a lack of work opportunities and the only response from these so-called political protectors is to label them as dole bludgers'.

Throughout the history of the word, most bludgers appear to have been male. The term bludgeress made a brief appearance in the first decade of this century - 'Latterly, bludgers, so the police say, are marrying bludgeresses' Truth 27 September - but it was shortlived. The word bluey in Australian English has a variety of meanings.

The most common is the swag i. The earliest evidence for bluey as a swag is from where the bluey is humped as it was by the itinerant bush worker tramping the wallaby track in the works of writers such as Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson. This image an Australian stereotype is epitomised in the following quotation for bluey :. There's the everlasting swaggie with his bluey on his back who is striking out for sunset on the Never-never track.

Goodge, Hits! The association of the swaggie and his bluey continues in more recent evidence for the term:. A swaggie suddenly appeared out of the bush, unshaven, with wild, haunted eyes, his bluey and billycan on his back. Cross, George and Widda-Woman That bluey is later transferred to luggage in general, is perhaps not surprising in an urban society which romanticises its 'bush' tradition:. Canberra Times 19 Nov.

The word has been used to denote another item of clothing - denim working trousers or overalls - but the citation evidence indicates the last citation being that this usage is no longer current. More familiar is the use of bluey to describe a summons, especially for a traffic offence originally printed on blue paper :.

Perhaps the most Australian use of bluey is the curious use of it to describe a red-headed person first recorded in :. Paterson, Shearer's Colt : 'Bluey', as the crowd called him, had found another winner. All red-haired men are called 'Bluey' in Australia for some reason or other.

Conquest, Dusty Distances : I found out later that he was a native of New South Wales, called ' Bluey because of his red hair - typical Australian logic. A more literal use of bluey in Australian English is its application to fauna whose names begin with blue and which is predominantly blue in colour:. Ornithologists refer to them as some species of wood swallow They're all 'blueys' to us.

There are two senses of the word bodgie in Australian English, both probably deriving from an earlier now obsolete word bodger.

The obsolete bodger probably derives from British dialect bodge 'to work clumsily'. In Australian English in the s and s bodger meant: 'Something or occasionally someone which is fake, false, or worthless'. The noun was also used adjectivally. Typical uses:. Hardy, Power without Glory : This entailed the addition of as many more 'bodger' votes as possible. Baker, The Australian Language : An earlier underworld and Army use of bodger for something faked, worthless or shoddy.

For example, a faked receipt or false name.. The word bodger was altered to bodgie , and this is now the standard form:. White, Silent Reach : This heap is hot - else why did they give it a one-coat spray job over the original white duco and fix it with bodgie number plates? In the s another sense of bodgie arose. The word was used to describe a male youth, distinguished by his conformity to certain fashions of dress and larrikin behaviour; analogous to the British 'teddy boy':.

This sense of bodgie seems to be an abbreviation of the word bodger with the addition of the -ie -y suffix. One explanation for the development of the teenage larrikin sense was offered in the Age Melbourne in Mr Hewett says his research indicates that the term 'bodgie' arose around the Darlinghurst area in Sydney.

It was just after the end of World War II and rationing had caused a flourishing black market in American-made cloth. This sense of bodgie belongs primarily to the s, but bodgie in the sense 'fake, false, inferior, worthless' is alive and flourishing in Australian English. An uncultured and unsophisticated person; a boorish and uncouth person. The early evidence is largely confined to teenage slang. Some lexicographers have suspected that the term may derive from the Bogan River and district in western New South Wales, but this is far from certain, and it seems more likely to be an unrelated coinage.

The term became widespread after it was used in the late s by the fictitious schoolgirl 'Kylie Mole' in the television series The Comedy Company. In the Daily Telegraph 29 November , in an article headed 'Same name a real bogan', a genuine schoolgirl named Kylie Mole 'reckons it really sux' " [i. Someone who wears their socks the wrong way or has the same number of holes in both legs of their stockings. A complete loser'. The earliest evidence we have been able to find for the term is in the surfing magazine Tracks September 'So what if I have a mohawk and wear Dr Martens boots for all you uninformed bogans?

In more recent years the term bogan has become more widely used and is often found in contexts that are neither derogatory or negative. The term has also generated a number of other terms including bogan chick , boganhood , and cashed-up bogan CUB.

She had a quiet, middle-class upbringing in Box Hill, attending a private girls' school. Our geographic reach is flexible; residents of Taree and like communities, for example, may readily qualify for Boganhood, usually with little or no burdensome paperwork. Affectionate, even I'm a bogan because I'm overweight. For further discussions of bogan see our Word of the Month article from Novemeber , and a article 'Bogan: from Obscurity to Australia's most productive Word' in our newsletter Ozwords.

To swim or bathe. Bogey is a borrowing from the Aboriginal Sydney Language. The earliest records show the term being used in the pidgin English of Aborigines:.

Bogie d'oway. These were Colby's words on coming out of the water. Dawson, Present State of Australia : 'Top bit, massa, bogy,' bathe and he threw himself into the water. Yes, said Mr Dixon, any two of ye that can swim. Harris, Settlers and Convicts : In the cool of the evening had a 'bogie' bathe in the river. Howell, Diggings and Bush : Florence was much amused the other evening by her enquiring if she Flory was going down to the water to have a 'bogey'.

Flory was much puzzled till she found out that a 'bogey', in colonial phraseology, meant a bath. Mackenzie, Aurukun Diary : A bogey is the Queensland outback word for a bath or bathe. A bogey hole is a 'swimming or bathing hole'. The verb is rare now in Australian English.

For an earlier discussion of bogey see our Word of the Month article from February A wave that forms over a submerged offshore reef or rock, sometimes in very calm weather or at high tide merely swelling but in other conditions breaking heavily and producing a dangerous stretch of broken water.

The word is now commonly used for the reef or rock itself. Horrobin Guide to Favourite Australian Fish ed.

Bombora probably derives from the Aboriginal Sydney Language where it may have referred specifically to the current off Dobroyd Head, Port Jackson. The term is mostly used in New South Wales, where there are numerous bomboras along the coast, often close to cliffs. Used allusively to refer to a hasty departure or speedy action. Bondi is the Sydney suburb renowned worldwide for its surf beach. Trams last ran on the line in , but the phrase has remained a part of Australian English.

Bonzer is an adjective meaning 'surpassingly good, splendid, great'. Bonzer is possibly an alteration of the now obsolete Australian word bonster with the same meaning which perhaps ultimately derives from British dialect bouncer 'anything very large of its kind'. In the early records the spelling bonzer alternates with bonser , bonza , and bonzor. The adjective, noun, and adverb are all recorded from the early years of the 20th century:.

Yuong Jack Hansen undertook to sit him but failed at every attempt. Jack states he got a 'bonza on the napper', at one time when thrown. Cable By Blow and Kiss : Came back grinning widely, with the assurance that it [ sc. A fool or simpleton; a stupid person; an uncouth person. Boofhead derives from buffle-headed 'having a head like a buffalo' OED and bufflehead 'a fool, blockhead, stupid fellow' OED. Bufflehead has disappeared from standard English, but survives in its Australian form boofhead.

It was popularised by the use of boofhead as the name of a dimwitted comic strip character invented by R. Clark and introduced in the Sydney Daily Mail in May For an earlier discussion of the word see our Word of the Month article from December We get their boofheads so they can have ours. Boomerang is an Australian word which has moved into International English.

The word was borrowed from an Aboriginal language in the early years of European settlement, but the exact language is still uncertain. Early evidence suggests it was borrowed from a language in, or just south of, the Sydney region. While the spelling boomerang is now standard, in the early period the word was given a variety of spellings: bomerang , bommerang , bomring , boomereng , boomering , bumerang [etc]. The Australian Aboriginal boomerang is a crescent-shaped wooden implement used as a missile or club, in hunting or warfare, and for recreational purposes.

The best-known type of boomerang , used primarily for recreation, can be made to circle in flight and return to the thrower. Although boomerang -like objects were known in other parts of the world, the earliest examples and the greatest diversity of design is found in Australia.

A specimen of a preserved boomerang has been found at Wyrie Swamp in South Australia and is dated at 10, years old. Boomerangs were not known throughout the entirety of Australia, being absent from the west of South Australia, the north Kimberley region of Western Australia, north-east Arnhem Land, and Tasmania. In some regions boomerangs are decorated with designs that are either painted or cut into the wood.

Very early in Australian English the term boomerang was used in transferred and figurative senses, especially with reference to something which returns to or recoils upon its author. These senses are now part of International English, but it is interesting to look at the earliest Australian evidence for the process of transfer and figurative use:. By the s boomerang had also developed as a verb in Australian English, meaning 'to hit someone or something with a boomerang; to throw something in the manner of a boomerang'.

By the s the verbal sense developed another meaning: 'to return in the manner of a boomerang; to recoil upon the author ; to ricochet'.

The earliest evidence for this sense occurs in the Brisbane Worker newspaper from 16 May Australia's a big country An' Freedom's humping bluey And Freedom's on the wallaby Oh don't you hear her Cooee, She's just begun to boomerang She'll knock the tyrants silly.

On 13 November the Canberra Times reported that 'Greg Chappell's decision to send England in appeared to have boomeranged'. These verbal senses of boomerang have also moved into International English. For a further discussion of boomerang see the article 'Boomerang, Boomerang, Thou Spirit of Australia!

The phrase is first recorded in the s. A tax avoidance scheme. In the late s a large number of bottom of the harbour schemes were operating in corporate Australia.

The term is usually used attributively. Hyland Diamond Dove : The feller in the dock was some fabulous creature - part lawyer, part farmer - who'd been caught in a bottom-of-the-harbour tax avoidance scheme. An employee responsible for maintaining the outer fences on a station, or a publicly owned vermin-proof fence. This sense of boundary rider is recorded from the s but in more recent years, as a result of changes in technology and modes of transport, this occupation has become relatively rare.

Since the s the term has been used of a boundary umpire in Australian Rules Football, a cricketer in a fielding position near the boundary, and a roving reporter at a sporting game. For a more detailed discussion of the original sense of boundary rider and the later sporting senses see our Word of the Month article from December McGinnis Tracking North : Mechanisation had finally reached the open-range country. There were no more pumpers or boundary riders. Be the unlikely winner of an event; to win an event coming from well behind.

The phrase comes from the name of Steven Bradbury, who won a gold medal in speed skating at the Winter Olympics after his opponents fell. For a detailed discussion of this phrase see our blog 'Doing a Bradbury: an Aussie term born in the Winter Olympics' which includes a video of Bradbury's famous win , and our Word of the Month article from August The Socceroos need some of that luck.

The practice of improperly increasing the membership of a local branch of a political party in order to ensure the preselection of a particular candidate. The term is a specific use of branch meaning 'a local division of a political party'. While the practice described by branch stacking has been around for a very long time, the word itself is first recorded in the s. Leaving immediately; making a hasty departure; at full speed.

It is likely that this expression was first used in horseracing to refer to a horse that moved very quickly out of the starting gates. Bray Blossom : 'Come on youse blokes! First sign of a better offer and they are off like a bride's nightie. An invitation to bring a plate of food to share at a social gathering or fundraiser. There are many stories of new arrivals in Australia being bamboozled by the instruction to bring a plate.

As the locals know, a plate alone will not do. In earlier days the request was often ladies a plate , sometimes followed by gentlemen a donation. Ladies bring a plate. Please bring a plate. All welcome. A wild horse.

The origin for this term is still disputed. Curr in Australian Race gives booramby meaning 'wild' in the language of the Pitjara or Pidjara or Bidjara people of the region at the headwaters of the Warrego and Nogoa Rivers in south-western Queensland. This is in the general location of the earliest evidence, but the language evidence has not been subsequently confirmed.

This origin was popularised by Paterson in an introduction to his poem 'Brumby's run' printed in A common suggestion is that brumby derives from the proper name Brumby. This theory was also noted by E. Morris in Austral English in 'A different origin was, however, given by an old resident of New South Wales, to a lady of the name Brumby, viz. Over the years, various Messrs Brumby have been postulated as the origin. More recently, Dymphna Lonergan suggested that the word comes from Irish word bromaigh , the plural form of the word for a young horse, or colt.

For a more detailed discussion concerning the origin of the term brumby see the article 'Wild Horses Running Wild' in our Ozwords newsletter. McGinnis Wildhorse Creek : The country's rotten with brumbies. A forlorn hope; no prospect whatever. One explanation for the origin of the term is that it comes from the name of the convict William Buckley, who escaped from Port Phillip in and lived for 32 years with Aboriginal people in southern Victoria.

A second explanation links the phrase to the Melbourne firm of Buckley and Nunn established in , suggesting that a pun developed on the 'Nunn' part of the firm's name with 'none' and that this gave rise to the formulation 'there are just two chances, Buckley's and none'. This second explanation appears to have arisen after the original phrase was established.

For an earlier discussion about the origin of the term buckley's chance see the article 'Buckley's' in our Ozwords newsletter. It should have been Buckley. Olympus explains that he altered it because he didn't want the Fitzroy men to have 'Buckley's chance'. A pair of close-fitting male swimming briefs made of stretch fabric. The Australian term is probably a variation of the international English grape smugglers for such a garment.

Budgie smugglers is one of the numerous Australian words for this particular garment others include bathers , cossies , speedos , swimmers , and togs. Budgie is a shortening of budgerigar - from Kamilaroi an Aboriginal language of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland , and designates a small green and yellow parrot which has become a popular caged bird. The term is a jocular allusion to the appearance of the garment. Budgie smugglers is first recorded in the late s.

For a more detailed discussion of the word see our Word of the Month article from December That, and a thin pair of Speedos so figure-hugging you can see every goosebump - flimsy togs that are known not-all-that-affectionately by us Brown boys as budgie smugglers! A kind of fine powdery dirt or dust, often found in inland Australia. Roads or tracks covered with bulldust may be a hazard for livestock and vehicles, which can become bogged in it.

It is probably called bulldust because it resembles the soil trampled by cattle in stockyards. The word can also be used as a polite way of saying bullshit. Both senses of the word are first recorded in the s. This 'bull' dust might be about two feet deep, and cakes on the surface, so that it is hard to penetrate. I told him that nothing would get within a 'bull's roar' of Agricolo to interfere with him, and such was the case.

The term is often found in this phrasal form where it now has several meanings: 'to be financially bankrupt, to come to nought; to fail, to collapse, to break down'. These figurative senses of bung emerged in the late 19th century. An amphibious monster supposed to inhabit inland waterways. Descriptions of it vary greatly. Some give it a frightful human head and an animal body.

Many descriptions emphasise its threat to humans and its loud booming at night. It inhabits inland rivers, swamps, and billabongs.

The word comes from the Aboriginal Wathaurong language of Victoria. Bunyip is first recorded in the s. For a more detailed discussion of this word see the article 'There's a Bunyip Close behind us and he's Treading on my Tail' in our Ozwords newsletter. Venture an attempt; give something a try. This is an Australian alteration of the standard English phrase give it a whirl. Give it a burl is first recorded in the early years of the 20th century.

We'll give it a burl, eh? We wanted to give it a burl and see how it went. We'd do it again. What do you think this is, bush week?

These senses of bush week go back to the early 20th century. The phrase originally implied the notion that people from the country are easily fooled by the more sophisticated city slickers. The speaker resents being mistaken for a country bumpkin. Glassop Lucky Palmer : I get smart alecks like you trying to put one over on me every minute of the day. What do you think this is? Bush Week? Murray Goodbye Lullaby : They had already been warned about the breastfeeding business Beat it, you two!

The act or process of criticising the Australian Government and its bureaucracy. Canberra , the capital of Australia, has been used allusively to refer to the Australian Government and its bureaucracy since the s. The term Canberra bashing emerged in the s, and is also applied in criticisms of the city itself.

For a more detailed discussion of the term see our Word of the Month article from February Politicians on both sides have shown a willingness to put the boot into a national capital. In a political context a decision made by a party leader etc.

This term also takes the form captain's call. Captain's pick is derived from sporting contexts in which a team captain has the discretion to choose members of the team. The political sense emerged in Australian English in For a more detailed discussion of this term see our Word of the Month article from January To die; to break down; to fail. Also spelt kark , and often taking the form cark it. The word is probably a figurative use of an earlier Australian sense of cark meaning 'the caw of a crow', which is imitative.

Beilby Gunner : 'That wog ya roughed up - well, he karked. A derogatory term for a person who espouses left-wing views but enjoys an affluent lifestyle.

It is modelled on the originally British term, champagne socialist , which has a similar meaning. The term chardonnay socialist appeared in the s, not long after the grape variety Chardonnay became very popular with Australian wine drinkers.

Williamson Emerald City : I'm going to keep charting their perturbations.. A checkout operator at a supermarket. This term usually refers to female checkout operators hence chick , an informal word for a young woman , but with changes in the gender makeup of the supermarket workforce the term is occasionlly applied to males. Checkout chick is first recorded in the s.

For a more detailed discussion of the term see our Word of the Month article from May A domestic fowl; a chicken. Chook comes from British dialect chuck y 'a chicken; a fowl' which is a variant of chick.

Chook is the common term for the live bird, although chook raffles , held in Australian clubs and pubs, have ready-to-cook chooks as prizes. The term has also been transferred to refer to other birds, and often in the form old chook it can refer to a woman. See our Word of the Month articles 'chook run' and 'chook lit' for further uses of chook. First recorded as chuckey in Was he looking after the housemaid or the little chookies? A jocular curse. This expression recalls an earlier time when many Australians kept chooks domestic chickens in the backyard and the dunny was a separate outhouse.

Although I must say this is a very cunning, contrived piece of legislation, if that is what they set out to do. May their chooks turn into emus and kick their dunnies down.

To vomit. Chunder possibly comes from a once-popular cartoon character, 'Chunder Loo of Akim Foo', drawn by Norman Lindsay for a series of boot polish advertisements in the early s. It is possible that 'Chunder Loo' became rhyming slang for spew. Chunder , however, is the only form to be recorded. The earliest evidence is associated with Australian troops in action to the north of Australia during the Second World War.

Makes you chunda. Something that is largely illusory or exists in name only; a poor substitute or imitation. This word derives from the proprietary name of a soft drink, sold in a bottle that looked like a whisky bottle, and marketed from as 'the drink you have when you're not having a drink'. For a more detailed discussion of the word see our blog 'The evolution of a word - the case of Clayton's'. Pung Growing up Asian in Australia : My bikini top is crammed so full of rubbery 'chicken fillets' I'd probably bounce if you threw me.

These Clayton's breasts jiggle realistically when I jump up and down on the spot. An unbranded animal. In the pastoral industry an animal that has not been branded with a mark identifying the owner can easily be stolen or lost.

The word is first recorded in the s. There are several transferred and figurative senses of cleanskin that evolved from the orgininal sense. In the first decade of the 20th century cleanskin began to be used to describe 'an Aboriginal person who has not passed through an initiation rite'. Also from this period on cleanskin was used figuratively of 'a person who has no criminal record; a person new to a situation or activity and lacking experience'.

From the s cleanskin was also used of 'a bottle of wine without a label that identifies the maker, sold at a price cheaper than comparable labelled bottles; the wine in such a bottle'. Keenan The Horses too are Gone : In the rangelands an unbranded calf becomes a cleanskin and cleanskins belong to the first person capable of planting a brand on the rump.

A friend, a companion. The word probably derives from the Yiddish word chaber 'comrade'. It is likely that these terms, as well as cobber , found their way into London slang especially from the Jewish population living in the East End , and from there, via British migrants, into Australian English.

It is sometimes suggested that cobber derives from British dialect. The English Dialect Dictionary lists the word cob 'to take a liking to any one; to "cotton" to', but the evidence is from only one Suffolk source, and the dictionary adds: 'Not known to our other correspondents'.

This Suffolk word is sometimes proposed as the origin of cobber , but its dialect evidence is very limited.

Cobber , now somewhat dated, is rarely used by young Australians. A small-scale farmer; in later use often applied to a substantial landowner or to the rural interest generally. In Australia there are a number of cockies including cow cockies , cane cockies and wheat cockies. Cocky arose in the s and is an abbreviation of cockatoo farmer. This was then a disparaging term for small-scale farmers, probably because of their habit of using a small area of land for a short time and then moving on, in the perceived manner of cockatoos feeding.

A person sentenced in the British Isles to a term of penal servitude in an Australian Colony. The foundations of European settlement in Australia are based on the transportation of tens of thousands of prisoners from the British Isles.

The word is a specific use of convict 'a condemned criminal serving a sentence of penal servitude' OED. While in America convict is still used to refer to a prisoner, in Australia it is now largely historical. For a further discussion of this word see our blog 'A long lost convict: Australia's "C-word"?

Angas Description of the Barossa Range : No convicts are transported to this place, for South Australia is not a penal colony. Originally a call used by an Aboriginal person to communicate with someone at a distance; later adopted by settlers and now widely used as a signal, especially in the bush; a name given to the call.

The iconic call of the Australian bush comes from the Aboriginal Sydney language word gawi or guwi meaning 'come here'. Cooee is recorded from the early years of European settlement in Sydney. It is often found in the phrase within cooee meaning 'within earshot; within reach, near'. Cunningham Two Years in New South Wales : In calling to each other at a distance, the natives make use of the word Coo-ee , as we do the word Hollo , prolonging the sound of the coo , and closing that of the ee with a shrill jerk.

Lambert Watermen : If I ever see you within coo-ee of my boat again, I'll drown you. The term coolibah is best known from the opening lines of Banjo Paterson's lyrics for the song Waltzing Matilda :.

The word is a borrowing from Yuwaaliyaay and neighbouring languages , an Aboriginal language of northern New South Wales. In the earlier period it was was spelt in various ways, including coolabah , coolobar , and coolybah.

It is term for any of several eucalypts, especially the blue-leaved Eucalyptus microtheca found across central and northern Australia, a fibrous-barked tree yielding a durable timber and occurring in seasonally flooded areas. Coolibah is first recorded in the s.

Bad, unpleasant or unsatisfactory: Things were crook on the land in the seventies. Crook means bad in a general sense, and also in more specific senses too: unwell or injured a crook knee , and dishonest or illegal he was accused of crook dealings. All senses are recorded from the s. Pratt Wolaroi's Cup : Most stables.. Clune Roaming Round the Darling : My cobber, here, used to sing in opera. He's a pretty crook singer, but he'll sing for you. Used to indicate the need for a rest in order to settle down, solve a problem, etc.

The phrase now often with some variations was originally the title of a a revue at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney Not anymore. A native-born Australian.

These terms are now obsolete. These were called currency. An unfashionable person; a person lacking style or character; a socially awkward adolescent, a 'nerd'. These senses of dag derive from an earlier Australian sense of dag meaning 'a "character", someone eccentric but entertainingly so'. Ultimately all these senses of dag are probably derived from the British dialect especially in children's speech sense of dag meaning a 'feat of skill', 'a daring feat among boys', and the phrase to have a dag at meaning 'to have a shot at'.

The Australian senses of dag may have also been influenecd by the word wag a habitual joker , and other Australian senses of dag referring to sheep see rattle your dags below.

Dag referring to an unfashionable person etc. Never ever wear a striped suit, a striped shirt and a striped tie together - just dreadful You look like a real dag. Hurry up, get a move on. When a daggy sheep runs, the dried dags knock together to make a rattling sound. The word dag originally daglock was a British dialect word that was borrowed into mainstream Australian English in the s.

Thorne Battler : C'mon Mum, rattle yer dags - the old girls are hungry! To pull down or remove the trousers from a person as a joke or punishment. Dak derives from another Australian term daks meaning 'a pair of trousers'. The term is first recorded from the early s but is probably much older than that. For a more detailed discussion of dak see our Word of the Month article from July His family didn't know about it until he was dacked during a game this year.

A simple kind of bread, traditionally unleavened and baked in the ashes of an outdoor fire. Because it was the most common form of bread for bush workers in the nineteenth century, to earn your damper means to be worth your pay.

Bisley Stillways : We made damper out of flour and water, squeezed it around green sticks to cook over the coals.

A commemorative ceremony held at dawn on Anzac Day. Anzac Day, April 25, is a national public holiday in Australia commemorating all those who have served and died in war. While commemorative services have been held on April 25 since , the term dawn service is not recorded until the s.

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument that was originally found only in Arnhem Land in northern Australia. It is a long, wooden, tubular instrument that produces a low-pitched, resonant sound with complex, rhythmic patterns but little tonal variation. In popular understanding many Australians probably believe that this is an Aboriginal word. Indeed, the edition of the Australian National Dictionary attributed it to the Yolngu language of northern Queensland.

Subsequent research has cast doubt on this etymology, and in the following statement was made in Australian Aboriginal Words in English : 'Although it has been suggested that this must be a borrowing from an Australian language it is not one. The name probably evolved from white people's ad hoc imitation of the sound of the instrument'. This argument is supported by two of the earliest pieces of evidence for the term:.

It produces but one sound - 'didjerry, didjerry, didjerry -' and so on ad infinitum. The term was applied during the First World War to Australian and New Zealand soldiers because so much of their time was spent digging trenches. First recorded in this sense It came to France when the sandgropers gave up digging on the goldfields of W. They include a major who planned an 'unprecedented operation' to capture a rogue Afghan sergeant who murdered three Australian diggers.

Reliable; genuine; honest; true. A recent Magazine article about the decline of Australian slang prompted readers to share some of their favourite expressions. The piece, by Sydney correspondent Jon Donnison , looked at the huge contribution to "strine" made by Barry Humphries and terms originating in the country's legendary laddish drinking culture. Here's a selection of other slang phrases you sent in. As crook as Rookwood - seriously ill.

Louise Whitby, Sydney, Australia. Bogan - chav. Best said in a strong accent! Kate, Essex. Cark it - die. Drongo - no-hoper or fool. Someone whose "lift doesn't go to the top floor" or whose "lights are on but no-one's home". Derives from a racehorse of that name in the s, which never won a race out of 37 starts.

Jack, Brisbane, Australia. Face like a dropped pie - ugly. Just so descriptive and used a lot by Australians working here in East Timor. Usually about me. Wayne Lovell, Dili, East Timor.

Firies - firefighters. Doug, Sydney. Origins of "chunder". In our original article we wrote that the word "chunder" originated with the first immigrants to Australia, who suffered from seasickness during the voyage. They'd shout "Watch out under! Stuart from Orpington suggests an alternative theory, quoting the Oxford Dictionaries : "s, probably from rhyming slang Chunder Loo 'spew', from the name of a cartoon character Chunder Loo of Akim Foo, who appeared in advertisements for Cobra boot polish in the Sydney Bulletin in the early 20th Century.

Fit as a Mallee bull - very fit and strong, in good physical condition. The Mallee is a region in Victoria, South Australia - a dry area where an animal would need to be tough and fit to survive. Monica Meren, Bossay-sur-Claise, France.

Full as a centipede's sock drawer - very full. I heard a guy say this after a particularly big meal while on a visit to Melbourne. Brian Murdoch, Glasgow. Garbos - refuse workers. Go off like a frog in a sock - go berserk. Barton Mills, Suffolk.

Go troppo - go crazy. I think it was first applied to people thought to have become a bit strange from the tropical heat in places like Darwin. I have one experience of going troppo, albeit briefly, and in Devon!

H Arshi, Exeter, Devon. Have a root - have sex. Solution: Stick to "drunk". The prime directive of any Aussie on reaching foreign shores is clear — the search for a decent coffee. Flat whites are a Aussie-Kiwi phenomenon, though they're becoming more common in the UK, and "long black" will receive blank stares, or worse. Solution: Choose a caffe latte instead of a flat white to make life easier, and have a stab at ordering the Italian espresso lungo, though it's shorter than the average long black.

On our first visit to London many years ago, my other half ordered a lemon, lime and bitters from a West End theatre at interval. There was a startled reaction, then the barman explained that a he had no idea what she was asking for, and b bitters can be poisonous. From memory, I think she settled for a fizzy orangeade.

Solution: Go for the trademark soft drink of the country you're in, be it papaya juice or freshly-squeezed lemonade.

Here's another fine case of an expression which can be taken two ways. But you're probably just annoyed at them, and causing unnecessary alarm to the people who've already downed their meals. Solution: Use "pisses me off" instead, keeping in mind the confusion around "pissed". This is a particularly tricky word, as "dag" and "daggy" lack obvious neat translations into other varieties of English.

One thing's for sure though, they'll have no idea how to take the remark. Solution: I got nothing here. Whatever you do though, don't mention the literal meaning of dag and its relationship to a sheep's bum. Have you found yourself using Aussie phrases and words overseas that have baffled the locals? Share your stories below. Home Destinations. Search Site. Previous slide Next slide.

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