There are 20 results of your search for Tasmania.
acker1
noun a large playing marble; alley.
Contributor's comments: (from SA) Never heard ackers before - always alleys or doogs.
Contributor's comments: As a child in Melbourne, we used to call the large marbles 'tomboller'. Not sure how you'd spell it.
Contributor's comments: Never used in SA as far as I know. We only used Alleys, Doogs, Catseyes, and Tom Bowlers for large glass ones.
Contributor's comments: [SA informant] Never heard acker before either.
Contributor's comments: In Tassie, we kept an acker in our marble collection. NB never came across a 'doog'.
ackers
(from King Island) testicles: He was hit in the ackers while playing cricket.
Contributor's comments: Being hit in the aggates was the expression we used.
Contributor's comments: Here in the UK we say "knackers": "ackers" sounds like a contraction of this. In the Midlands region of England, "ackers" means "money".
afters
1. Child care provided at the school after school hours: Are you going to afters today?
2. a party held after a school ball.
3. dessert.
Contributor's comments: Certainly in recent times (last 15 years) I have used the word "afters" to refer to after school care, but I used it at school as a shortened for afternoon tea as in "We're going to Mum's for afters". Victorian mother, WA educated Dad, lived all my life in Victoria.
Contributor's comments: a party after a school ball - 'befores' is the party before the ball where everyone meets up to go to the ball together.
Contributor's comments: 'Afters' generally refers to any party occurring after a big event - not just a school ball. It tends to be prefaced by what the event was - ie. 'ball afters' or 'production afters'. I think it was derived from 'after-ball party' or something to that effect.
Contributor's comments: I understand "afters" to be desert - after the main course.
Contributor's comments: Tasmanian expression for dessert etc. after a main course.
Agrovate
The local newspaper in the NW of Tas is called the Advocate but is known as the Agrovate.
alleys
Name for the game of 'marbles' and for each marble: Want to play alleys? I have a cats eye alley.
Contributor's comments: Adelaide suburbs in 1950s, but perhaps in wider use - not sure.
Contributor's comments: Alley, a marble. We used this word where I grew up in Mirboo North, South Gippsland, Vic.
Contributor's comments: Invariable name for the game and the marble in Melb in 1940's. The alley in the middle was the tor or taw.
Contributor's comments: "Alleys" for marbles was in widespread use in Perth in the fities and sixties. I don't know if it is currently used.
Contributor's comments: We played 'alleys' at primary school in Melbourne in the 60s. The prized alleys were called blood suckers.
Contributor's comments: Was used commonly in S.W. Queensland in the Fifties.
Contributor's comments: A name for a marble (as in the children's game of marbles). Term used in 50's and 60's. Special types of marbles (alleys) were called: Tom Bowlers, cat's eyes, blood suckers: "Let's have a game of alleys!"
Contributor's comments: West Coast of Tasmania marbles were called alleys in late 1940's.
Contributor's comments: Used in Melbourne in 40's.
Contributor's comments: Alleys was the game in Orbost.
Contributor's comments: The term alleys for marbles originates from Sussex dialect and was in use when I was at school in Eastbourne in the 1940s
Contributor's comments: 'Alleys' was common usage for marbles in inner Melbourne suburbs in 1930s and according to my father, a generation earlier.
Contributor's comments: As a young English kids in the 50's we played marbles but were aware that alleys was an old word for them. We also valued Ballbies (steel ball bearings)
Contributor's comments: Alleys was the marble game played by us in the Bendigo region in the 50's & 60's. The tombowler was the most effective weapon.
Contributor's comments: We used to play alleys in the outer Northern suburbs of Melbourne in the the 1960's. Typically they were the clear ones, while the opaque ones were 'aggies' or 'agates', and the big ones were 'tombolas' (that's a guess at the spelling)
Contributor's comments: My parents and I used the term 'alleys' for marbles in N. England 60+ years ago which may have some bearing on the distribution in Australia.
Contributor's comments: In the 1950s, used in the Riverland for marbles.
Contributor's comments: My parents and I used the term 'alleys' for marbles in N. England 60+ years ago which may have some bearing on the distribution in Australia.
American tea
An afternoon tea party held to raise funds. Common in the mid-decades of 20 C. Usually involved small stalls selling homemade items such as knitting, cakes and sweets. Usually organised and patronised by women: Mrs Jones is having an American Tea next Saturday afternoon, to raise money for...
Contributor's comments: I left Tasmania in 1987; never heard this phrase.
arcing up
crying: The baby is arcing up a lot today.
Contributor's comments: In this part of North Queensland when someone arcing up they normally becoming upset about something.
Contributor's comments: Arcing up is common in Victoria - used as an expression of angry reaction.
Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] 'Arcing up' at someone is to launch a verbal attack on them.
Contributor's comments: [Sydney informant] Heard this used many times over the last 50 years but usually referred to someone who 'bridled up' at a particular comment.
Contributor's comments: I think it comes from steel welders starting to weld so look away.
Contributor's comments: Have heard it used to describe getting agressive toward someone, but also refering to lighting up a smoke (Most commonly a joint).
Contributor's comments: This word was commonly used in Kalgoorlie to mean starting up an appliance and I've also heard it used to describe students getting louder and obnoxious!
Contributor's comments: Common at country Bachelor & Spinster balls when the ute engines are revved up until they make a big cracking noise. "Arced up, went berzerk, signed off with circle work"
Contributor's comments: Arcing up is used in by soldiers when describing a significant burst of small arms fire, generally associated with an ambush or similar occurrence.
Contributor's comments: I first heard this in Alice Springs in 1996. It was said to mean "losing your temper" or "getting defensive"... I think it might be related to the arch in a cat's back used to ward off an offending approacher.
Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] Yes, to "Arc up" as in aggressively emotional. From Arc welding, fire up - sparks fly.
Contributor's comments: I've heard this term used to mean a few of the things mentioned in previous comments. Particularly the reference to the military types opening fire. I've also heard it used in the NT as someone getting rather angry.
Contributor's comments: To me "arcing up" is usually used to refer to a crowd getting louder and more hyped up. This can either be in an aggressive or a good way.
Contributor's comments: After the lekkies have jerked their wires there is that first turning on of the juice. If there is a problem the switchboard will produce an arc (a very hot spark). Similarly when starting a big machine after major maintenance, it is smoke-tested by firing-up, by turning on the jolts. An alternative to the command "Arc 'er up!" is "OK, kick 'er in the guts" or even "Hit the tit!".
area school
noun a state school in a rural area which provides both primary and secondary education. Compare central school, consolidated school, district school.
Contributor's comments: Sheffield Area School was established the first in Tasamania. [It] was established in 1939 - many other area schools in rural Tas. All have now converted to 'district high schools' with classes from K to 10.
Contributor's comments: An 'area school' in Tasmania, from the early 60s to mid 80s, was ostensibly a rural primary school, though there may have been an attached kindergarten and in some of the more remote areas classes may have continued to include grades 7 & 8.
Contributor's comments: [Adelaide informant] A school that is both primary and secondary combined as one entity.
Contributor's comments: In Queensland country towns where there was no high school they often had what was known as "secondary tops" which was grade 8-10 attached to a primary school.
Contributor's comments: I attended an Area School in rural South Australia. They still exist as single entity K -12 School.
Contributor's comments: Up to '80s most area schools in Tasmania had schoolfarm (and rural studies subjects at secondary level)
Contributor's comments: Booleroo Centre had a High School in the sixties, whilst nearby Orroroo had an Area School, which at that time seemed to mean that you could go up to your Leaving Certificate (Year 11) at Booleroo, but only to Intermediate (Year 10) at Orroroo.
ark
to cry: Jake is arking up and no-one is getting any sleep. Also, ark up.
Contributor's comments: Ark up or arking up is to lose ones temper with some one or to get "fired up", usually in conversation.
arks
A corruption of the word "ask", which is phonetically spelled "arsk" Often heard when talking to country people in the North East of Tasmania: I arksed him where he lived.
Contributor's comments: I work in the western area of Sydney, and find this word quite common among my colleagues. Even some who are tertiary educated.
Contributor's comments: The first time I came across "arks" as a mispronunciation of "ask" it was used by a family I knew from country Victoria, who had moved to South Australia. Since then I've heard it from other Victorians, which made me wonder if it was being taught that way in their schools! When I corrected my friend, he was totally oblivious. I jokingly "asked" him what the biblical Noah had transported the animals in. "Noah's Ask"? He wasn't impressed.
arvo1
For information about this word see sarvo. Compare arftie, sarvey, sarvo.
Contributor's comments: I lived in Queensland (both the South East, Far North and the Far West of Queensland for 28 years from my birth, and never heard "evening" used to describe the period after midday (which was 'afternoon' or 'arvo'). 'Evening' was used for the period after 5 pm, usually just before and after sunset.
Contributor's comments: Arvo is used in Perth too. As is 'evening' to describe the period from mid afternoon (let's say 3-4 pm) until dark, night would then ensue.
attack of the flying axe handles
Severe and sudden diarrhoea (Used when I lived in Tasmania for 26yrs): I couldn't go to work becaue I had an attack of the .....
Contributor's comments: Used in the past in NE Tasmania.
Australia
Used by Tasmanians when referring to "the big island" ie, mainland Australia: I'm going to Australia next week on the boat.
Contributor's comments: Also used on King Island. 'Tasmania' is used in the same sense by 'King Islanders'.
Contributor's comments: I have heard this quite often on North Stradbroke Island, referring to the "big island"
autotray
noun a small table on castors for carrying dishes, serving food, etc. Compare autotrolley, traymobile.
away
The origins of anyone who was not born in Broken Hill: Who is that person over there?I don't know - must be from-away.
Contributor's comments: Yep. This is the only region where I have heard this particular regionalism.
Contributor's comments: Any area which was not in the local vicinity, which was within about 100km: "John Smith is not a local, he is from away."
Contributor's comments: I heard this expression in Hill End, NSW on the weekend.
Contributor's comments: Used with "from" as he's from away, for anyone (resident -- no matter how long they may have lived there, or visitor) not born on King Island.
Contributor's comments: "Away" was in general use on King Island when I lived there during the 1960s. "Did you buy that car away or on the island?"
Contributor's comments: I've also heard this used around Crookwell in the Southern Tablelands of NSW.
Contributor's comments: I've only come across this in Broken Hill. It is also used when people travel out of town, for example "I'll ring you when you're back from away."
back-seat bogan
the kids that sat in the very back seat of the school bus (which is where the bogans usually sat) -- around in Perth in the 1980s: Don't sit there, you back-seat bogan!
Contributor's comments: In Brisbane in the 1980's we used the term "back-seat bevan" or "back-seat bevs".
Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] we used this expression at school in the late 80's and early 90's simply to refer to the people sitting in the back seat of the bus at the time.
Contributor's comments: Bogan is definitely understood (at least in my child-hood) as a particular social set characterised by flannelette shirts, ugg boots, black t-shirts advertising heavy metal bands etc. However, I have never used the word in this phrase (or heard it used). I am much more familiar with the phrase "back seat toughie" for this meaning.
Contributor's comments: [Perth informant] A bogan sitting in the back seat at the cinema. I heard this in reference to myself as I sat down at the rear of a cinema, by someone amongst a group of teenagers or 20yo's. It was said with a sarcastic tone of voice. I was wearing a check shirt, jeans and shoes. I suspect there was also an element of sleaziness attached to the meaning.
Contributor's comments: [Tasmania informant] When I was at school, the people who sat on the long back seat, were called back seat bogans.
badger
noun a wombat.
Contributor's comments: Never used in SA as far as I know.
Contributor's comments: There is a hill in Tasmania called Badger Hill. I never realised until a couple of years ago that it meant wombat.
Contributor's comments: Badger is used on Flinders Island to refer to wombats, also echidnas are porcupines.
Contributor's comments: Wombat. Usage mainly rural.
Contributor's comments: My father uses this word quite frequntly when refering to wombats. It would also seem to have been a common word for wombat on King Island. There, there is a beach called the 'badgerbox' reputedly for the number of wombats caught there by the early sealers.
Contributor's comments: When we first moved to Tasmania in the 1960s all the people around us referred to wombats as 'badgers' - This entirely confused my Welsh mother who had no inkling that the black and white UK animal lived in Tasmania. It took us a while to work out that it meant wombats, but Mum was still wildly excited, because to her they were even more exotic. We decided it was because of the defensive armory of wombats, their aggression and territoriality, and their burrows, that some resemblance was apparent between the two.
Contributor's comments: I hadn't ever heard the word 'badger' for wombat when growing up in a small Tasmanian town. It was one of the first things that struck me when I began my first job teaching in a country school - all the kids used it ...
Contributor's comments: 'Badger' has been used to refer to wombats for many years (probably since transportation). At Nubeena (near Port Arthur) there is still a Badger creek, Badger bay and another 'Badgerbox' although this refers to a small shack built near Badger Ck. Presumably due to the similarities of the wombat and the English badger.
badger box
a shack or poorly-built house: Let's go to your old badger box for a fishing trip.
Contributor's comments: This is the name of a beach and surrounding area on King Island, the origin of the name has been lost in antiquity, but this could well be the origin -- though I favour the more colourful theory of it springing from the number of badgers (wombats).
Contributor's comments: Badger Box was a term used by the piners on the west coast of Tasmania in the 19th Century for the small, temporary huts they built to live in while pining. Conditions in these huts were terrible, often prone to flooding and constantly leaking due to the metres of anual rainfall the area gets.
bag of death
The contents of a cask of cheap wine, usually red: How about a sample of your bag of death? Compare death bag.
bandicooting
This word was used by my boyfriend's mum. (I am visiting from the US.) We were talking about digging up potatoes. If I took them from the garden without asking, felt like I was stealing them. "Bandicooting potatoes" was the regionalism used to replace digging or "stealing" potatoes: I'll bandicoot your potatoes from the garden.
Contributor's comments: 'We'll have to bandicoot some spuds when it gits dark' - It only applied in Tas when the tubers were to be stolen without disturbing the potato plants on top of the soil....bandicoots dig in under grass roots for grubs and worms to feed at night.
Contributor's comments: To steal potatoes from a field or garden by digging under the plant without disturbing the top of the plant: "Some #$%*^# has been bandicooting my spuds again"
Contributor's comments: [Tasmanian informant] to dig up vegies i.e. potatoes only when you need them for cooking: "I'm going to bandicoot some spuds for tea."
Contributor's comments: To go into someone else's property to steal fruit from a tree: "We went bandicooting for some mangoes."