Kevin Barry ‘Kel’ Richards is an Australian author, journalist and radio personality. He presents Sydney radio station 2CH’s Sunday night program ‘Connections’. He has written a series of crime novels and thrillers for adult readers, including The Case of the Vanishing Corpse, Death in Egypt and An Outbreak of Darkness. Richards presented ABC News Radio’s weekend afternoons, which included regular Wordwatch segments, a feature he introduced. Initially developed as a filler program to allow time for changes of people or locations between programs, Wordwatch tapped into the listening public’s interest and several books have been produced based on the show’s research.

Kel Richards’ Dictionary of Australian Phrase and Fable

By Kel Richards

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

Copyright © 2013 Kel Richards
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-74223-373-4
CHAPTER 1

A

Abdul

The nickname Aussie soldiers (see Digger) used for the Turkish soldiers they were fighting at Gallipoli in World War I. The equivalent of calling a German soldier ‘Jerry’ in World War II.

Aboriginal

The original inhabitants of Australia. The word is first recorded with this meaning from 1829. Aboriginal comes from the same Latin source word from which we get ‘original’. Hence, the Oxford English Dictionary defines Aboriginal as the ‘First or earliest so far as history or science gives record’. The Australian Government’s Style Manual recommends using Aborigine as the noun and Aboriginal as the adjective. However, Stephen Murray-Smith finds this unnecessary, and suggests that the simplest thing to do is to use Aboriginal(s) as both the noun and the adjective, for both the singular and the plural. He asserts that this is strictly correct, as well as uncomplicated. His advice is probably sound. The word always takes a capital letter. (See also Koori and Indigenous.)

Aboriginalities

The title of a column appearing in the Bulletin magazine during the height of its influence as ‘the Bushman’s Bible’. The column consisted of contributions from readers (usually submitted under pseudonyms) containing tall tales, bush yarns and odd paragraphs about aspects of Australiana. It began in 1898 and a selection of items from the column was published as Aboriginalities from The Bulletin in 1913. (See also Bulletin.)

Above-ground pool

A domestic swimming pool that sits on the ground, rather than being dug into it. Usually constructed from a frame with a rubberised, waterproof lining. Popular because cheaper to install than an in-ground pool and, hey, Australia’s a hot country.

Ack-willie

While there is slang common to English-speaking armies around the world, Aussie soldiers appear to have been especially verbally inventive. For instance, it’s common to speak of soldiers who go A.W.L. or A.W.O.L. (‘absent without leave’) but only Aussies called doing so ‘going ack-willie’. This comes from military signalling code – a set of phonetic elaborations for letters of the alphabet (referring to ‘AM’ as ‘ack emma’ and ‘PM’ as ‘pip emma’ – that sort of thing). Hence the quaint expression ‘going ack-willie’. The earliest citation is from 1943.

A couple of lamingtons short of a CWA meeting

Not fully informed, a bit slow on the uptake (particularly at getting jokes) or a bit light-on in the intelligence department. This is one of scores of variations on ‘not the full quid’ – the variations providing Aussies with wide scope for linguistic invention. The CWA is the Country Women’s Association.

Act, to bung on an

To spit the dummy, to turn on a tantrum. The implication is that there is a degree of pretence or overacting going on here.

Adelaide food

For some reason Adelaide seems to be the home of a number of idiosyncratic examples of Australian food terms. For instance, there is the pie floater – a hot meat pie upside-down on pea soup, with a generous dollop of tomato sauce. Then there’s the savoury slice: a pastry slice with savoury mince filling, topped with cheese and bacon. If you have a sweet tooth you could try a frog cake – a small cake shaped like a frog with an open mouth and covered in icing (usually green, although pink and chocolate are also available), invented by Balfours bakery of Adelaide in 1922. Or, perhaps, a sinker – a solid fruit square with flaky pastry on the top and bottom, and topped with pink icing. Or, perhaps, a German cake – a yeast cake with a crumble topping, sometimes with fruit (either apple or apricot) under the crumble. All are among South Australia’s great contributions to the dictionary of Australian gastronomy.

Adrian Quist

Drunk. Rhyming slang (‘Adrian Quist’ = ‘pissed’). And no, it’s not a made-up name: Adrian Quist (1913–91) was a champion Australian tennis player.

Advance Australia Fair

Peter Dodds McCormick was born in Glasgow in 1834. In 1855 he arrived, as a young immigrant, in Australia. And a little over twenty years after his arrival he composed the song that was to become our national anthem ‘Advance Australia Fair’. The first public performance is thought to have been given in Sydney on 30 November (St Andrew’s Day) in 1878 at the St Andrew’s Day concert of the Highland Society. The song was later published by W. J. Paling and Company with the subtitle: ‘Respectfully dedicated to the sons and daughters of Australia’. In 1974 ‘Advance Australia Fair’ was chosen to be the Aussie national anthem (replacing ‘God Save the Queen’). Most Aussies can remember the first verse, but here are two verses, so that you won’t have to make silent goldfish mouthing actions should they ever play the second verse in your presence:

    Australians all let us rejoice,
    For we are young and free;
    We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil,
    Our home is girt by sea;
    Our land abounds in Nature’s gifts
    Of beauty rich and rare;
    In history’s page, let every stage
    Advance Australia fair!

    In joyful strains then let us sing,
    ‘Advance Australia fair!’
    Beneath our radiant Southern Cross,
    We’ll toil with hearts and hands;
    To make this Commonwealth of ours
    Renowned of all the lands;
    For those who’ve come across the seas

    We’ve boundless plains to share;
    With courage let us all combine
    To advance Australia fair.
    In joyful strains then let us sing
    ‘Advance Australia fair!’

The first line originally read ‘Australia’s sons let us rejoice.’ The above is the politically correct, and now official, version.

Peter Dodds McCormick was paid £100 for his composition by the Australian government in 1907. He died in Sydney in 1916. His claim to fame, perhaps, is that he has given us the only national anthem in the world containing the word ‘girt’. (The Aunty Jackteam of Grahame Bond and Rory O’Donoghue once composed a ‘national anthem’ for Wollongong which included the immortal line ‘Girt by sea – on one side’.)

Akubra

The brand name of the iconic Aussie bush hat. The brand has been in use since 1912. The classic Akubra is made from rabbit fur. According to legend, a broad-brimmed Akubra can take up to 15 rabbit skins. Mind you, there is a saying in the bush: ‘The broader the brim, the smaller the property’. (See also Baggy Green and Slouch hat.)

Alcheringa

See Dreamtime.

Amber fluid, the

An older slang term for beer. First recorded in 1906, perhaps less common now.

Ambo

A paramedic – Aussie abbreviation of ‘ambulance officer’.

Ankle biters

In Aussie English small children (toddlers) have been known as ankle biters for some time now. It’s in The Australian National Dictionary as a distinctively Aussie expression, first recorded in 1981. However, according to American language expert William Safire, ankle biter is also a bit of American Army slang – with an entirely different meaning. It appears that in the US Army ankle biters are ‘people who criticize one’s position but offer no constructive alternative’. While the Australian slang use is simply a reference to toddlers being close to the ground, the American term seems to suggest a small dog that keeps nipping at your heels and worrying you. The message is: be careful when describing your children as ankle biters to visiting Americans. They might be surprised to hear that your toddlers are ‘critical of your position while offering no constructive alternative’. What was that you muttered? Something about ‘two nations divided by a single language’?

Anythink

Quite commonly you will hear Australians turn a terminal ‘g’ into a ‘k’. It happens most often at the end of the word ‘thing’. Thus ‘something’ becomes ‘somethink’ and ‘anything’ becomes ‘anythink’. Why does it happen? People who would never spell ‘anything’ with a ‘k’ insist on saying it with a ‘k’ – why? What is happening in their brains (or their mouths) to make them produce the sounds they do? The best guess I can offer is that this expresses a need for sharper, more definite endings to these words. The terminal ‘g’ tails away, while the terminal ‘k’ ends the word with a clear and definite clunk. (But that’s still not a good excuse for doing it!)

Anzac

Did you realise that the word ‘Anzac’ is copyright? Originally, of course, it simply meant the ‘Australian and New Zealand Army Corps’. But so deeply has this word entered into the consciousness of our nation that there are laws, passed way back in 1920, that control and protect its use. The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs administers the protection of the word ‘Anzac’, and the minister’s approval is needed for the use of the word in connection with any ‘trade, business, calling or profession, any entertainment, lottery or art union, any building, private residence, boat or vehicle, or any charitable or other institution’. Even Anzac biscuits are protected by law. Well, not so much the biscuits as the name of the biscuits. And, by the way, ‘Anzac’ is no longer an acronym – it is now officially a word: that means the ‘A’ is upper-case and the rest of the letters should be lower-case.

Anzac biscuit

This is a biscuit made with rolled oats, golden syrup and coconut; one of Australia’s national foods. During World War I the wives, girlfriends and mums of the Australian soldiers used to make these biscuits to ship over to their blokes. They were originally called Soldiers’ Biscuits, but after the landing on Gallipoli, they were given their present name. And any entry on Anzac biscuits would be incomplete without a recipe, so here’s one from the Australian War Memorial:

Ingredients

1 cup each of plain flour, sugar, rolled oats and coconut
4 oz butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
(add a little more water if mixture is too dry)

Method

1. Grease biscuit tray and pre-heat oven to 180°C.

2. Combine dry ingredients.

3. Melt together butter and golden syrup. Combine water and bicarbonate of soda, and add to butter mixture.

4. Mix butter mixture into dry ingredients.

5. Drop teaspoons of mixture onto tray, allowing room for spreading.

6. Bake for 10–15 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on tray for a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

And why are there no eggs? Because apparently in the war, most poultry farmers had joined the army, so eggs were scarce. Golden syrup took the place of eggs as the binding agent in Anzac biscuits.

Anzac Day

Every year on 25 April Australia stops to celebrate Anzac Day. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during World War I. The diggers landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders. They were evacuated at the end of that year after eight months of stalemate, fierce fighting, and appalling losses. Over 8000 Australian soldiers were killed. The legend of Anzac was born on the beaches of Gallipoli. April 25th was officially named Anzac Day in 1916 as an occasion of national commemoration. Every year on this date commemorative services are held at dawn – the time of the original landing. Later in the morning, across the nation, Anzac Day marches are held in every major city and many smaller centres.

Archibald Prize

An annual prize for portraiture funded from a bequest by Jules François Archibald (1856–1919). It has been won over the years by some of Australia’s leading painters. Often controversial, it attracts a great deal of publicity each year and gives the art of portraiture a high profile in Australia. The bequest requires that portraits submitted are ‘preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Arts, Letters, Science or Politics’. The Archibald’s reputation for controversy and headlines was cemented in 1943 when William Dobell was awarded the prize for his portrait of Joshua Smith. Two unsuccessful competitors challenged the trustees’ decision in the New South Wales Supreme Court, arguing that the painting was not a portrait but a caricature. The court, however, after hearing evidence from artists and critics, upheld the original judges’ decision. J. F. Archibald’s other notable bequest funded the Archibald Fountain (at the northern end of Sydney’s Hyde Park. Archibald was for many years proprietor and editor of the Bulletin. (See Bulletin.)

Arcing up

1. Crying.

2. Launching a verbal attack.

3. Reacting angrily (perhaps parallel to the expression ‘bridle up’).

Possibly the expression comes from welders starting to weld steel, the cry ‘Arcing up!’ being a warning to look away.

Aristotle

Rhyming slang for ‘bottle’. There was a time when you could go to your local bottle shop and order ‘an Aristotle of the amber fluid, please, love’.

Artist

Not someone who’s slapping paint on canvas, but a negative way of describing a person with an unattractive speciality. So an exaggerator full of tall tales is a ‘bull artist’. The bloke who’s full of rip-off schemes is a ‘con artist’. A heavy drinker is a ‘booze artist’. And so on.

Art union

An art union is something like a lottery, except that it is usually run to raise money for a charity, and the prize is usually not money but a house on the Gold Coast or a car, or both. But art union? It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with any union, and art doesn’t seem to come into it. Well, the story is this: art unions were formed in Britain and Europe in the 19th century as associations to promote art by purchasing paintings and other works of art and dispensing these things among their members by lottery. Over time in Australia and New Zealand (but only here) things changed. All kinds of prizes, not just paintings and other works of art, came to be offered, and consequently the name ‘art union’ came to be applied to any lottery with prizes in kind rather than cash.

Arvo

This means, of course, the afternoon – Aussies love to shorten words like this: ‘this afternoon’ becomes’ sarvo; ‘Saturday afternoon’ becomes Sat’dee arvo. Perhaps abbreviations such as this were born in the dust storms of the outback – the shorter you made your words, the less dust you swallowed!

As full as …

When an Aussie is full of either food (‘I couldn’t eat another bite, love’) or grog (‘I think I’ve got me wobbly boots on’) there are a number of ways of saying just how full:

as full as a goog (where ‘goog’ means egg – an item that is
always completely full, packed to the shell)
as full as a state school
as full as a boot
as full as the fat lady’s sock
as full as a stripper’s dance card
as full as a stuffed pig
as full as the family dunny
as full as Santa’s sack on Christmas eve
as full as the family album
as full as the last bus (or last tram)
as full as a public school’s hat rack
as full as a cattle tick (picturing a cattle tick swollen with blood).

Ashes

Not a reference to bushfires, but to the trophy played for by England and Australia in Test cricket: an urn containing a cremated cricket stump, which is kept permanently in England. It’s also the title of the continuing competition between the English and Australian national cricket teams. The Australian National Dictionary lays claim to this as an Aussie word, even though it’s based on a mock obituary that first appeared in an English newspaper:

In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket, which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P.

N.B. — The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

Sporting Times (London), 2 September 1882

Despite this, the Australian National Dictionary says of ‘Ashes’: ‘Recorded earliest in Aust.’ Well, who are we to argue? By the way, that 1882 contest was decided by the magnificent bowling of Frederick Spofforth (see Demon Bowler), who took 14 for 90 and carried Australia to a dramatic 7-run victory.

Aunty

Popular nickname for the ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

(Continues…)Excerpted from Kel Richards’ Dictionary of Australian Phrase and Fable by Kel Richards. Copyright © 2013 Kel Richards. Excerpted by permission of University of New South Wales Press Ltd.
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