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messages


small shopping errands: Do you have to do any messages after school?

Contributor's comments: My mother always used 'messages' instead of 'shopping' growing up in Rocky (Rockhampton) in the 1960s. Eg, 'I'm going to do the messages.' 'After we've done the messages, I'll take you to the park.' It referred to grocery and fruit and vegetable shopping, not clothes and things from 'town'.

Contributor's comments: Message in the singular form was used by my Mum who is now 101 yrs. Would you "please do a message for Mum" meaning go buy the bread, milk, butter, etc. usually one item.

Contributor's comments: My mother and grandmothers from Sydney always used this expression.

Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] My mother always used this as a euphemism for bird droppings, specifically on a car.

Contributor's comments: My family used "to do the messages", i.e. shopping, in Adelaide in the 60s and 70s, but my parents come from Broken Hill. Collins English Dictionary gives this expression as "Scottish and Northern English dialect". It is also a literal translation of the standard Dutch expression for doing the shopping.

Contributor's comments: My grandmother, born 1897 in Gippsland Vic, used this expression for running errands.