‘Cowabunga!’ said the shark biscuit
This week we have a slang phrase for you to listen out for while you’re at the beach…
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Blogs
No wucking furries mate
No wucking furries mate, we’ve got you covered for Aussie Slang…
Don’t be a derbrain. Read our weekly Aussie slang blogs instead.
Don’t be a derbrain. Read our weekly Aussie slang blogs instead.
Do you cry over spilt milk or whip the cat?
We are purring over our Aussie Slang this week…
Aussie Slang: Playing by Rafferty’s rules
This week at the Macquarie Dictionary, we are playing by Rafferty’s rules…
Great Aussie places: The bright lights of Brisvegas
The term Brisvegas, a portmanteau of Brisbane and Vegas, originated in Queensland in part with ironic reference to the river city’s lack of showy opulence…
Classic Aussie Slang: Stunned mullet
Stunned mullet is a classic piece of Aussie slang from the 1950s that refers to a person who is completely and utterly stunned, amazed, dazed or otherwise stonkered…
Aussie Slang: Going down to the Cabbage Garden
The football season may be over but we thought there was still time for some state versus state rivalry. This week’s Aussie Word of the Week is Cabbage Garden…
By accident or on accident?
I was asked by a colleague the other day about the phrase on accident – as in to have done something on accident – and where this has
Seven new words to watch
Seven new words to watch for November. This month’s list includes a couple of environmental words, like passive home, an energy efficient building or home
A short list of five new words to watch
It’s a dog-heavy list, but we know a lot of people like it that way. When we look through our words to watch, often submitted by
Put on your daggiest duds you dag!
Put on your daggiest duds because we are exploring all things daggy in this week’s Aussie Word of the Week…
The great Aussie catchphrase of cooooo-eeee
Cooee, the sound of the great Australian contact call was adopted by the first European colonists from the Dharug language and people of the Sydney area…
Aussie Slang: Welcome to the North Island
Usually associated with New Zealand’s North Island, in Australian Slang, the ‘North Island‘ is used by Tasmanians as an ironic nickname for that big chunk of land that sits across the Bass Strait…
The Hobson-Jobson effect of the wee juggler
A wee juggler is a slang name for the Major Mitchell, a cockatoo with white wings, pink underparts, neck and face, and white crown suffused with salmon pink and forward-curving scarlet crest…
How’s this great Aussie slang insult: Ya bloody pie-eater
You may remember a few weeks ago when we featured wombat-headed as our Aussie Word of the Week. Well this week we have another great Aussie insult. Pie-eater...
Loan words from Australian languages: Tales of myth and misunderstanding
Words that have been borrowed into English from Australian Indigenous languages have often followed a circuitous path, beset by failures in communication between the Indigenous peoples
The origin of kangaroo – getting to the bottom of an Australian furphy
It is a myth that is, despite being debunked in the 1970s, still rampant – still passed smugly between schoolchildren in playgrounds all over Australia.