I though this might be a most revealing & interesting topic. Jedimasterbooboo gave me the idea when she asked

quote:
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Why do Australians need so many words to describe dumb people? Hmmm, just a question/thought.

Is it because they watch American television?
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Firstly to answer your question, Australians have a really good sense of humour,probably bought about because of all the greedy bloodsuckers who lorded it over the poor people who came to this country against their will, and I might add, were treated worse than a dead duck in a frying pan.

Secondly it is not because Australians do/do not watch American television. I know this for a fact because telly came to Australia in September 1956, and our(or these) slang terms were around long before that. My dad is a prime example, he often had to "see a man about a dog"

Now, to get down to some of our most endearing Australian expressions:

Drongo, Dill, Nitwit, Not quite the full shilling, A stubbie short of a six pack, The lights are on but nobody's home, Not overly endowed in the upper story, Not over endowed with grey cells.

Don't come the raw prawn, Struth, Fair Dinkum, You could of knocked me down with a feather, Hells Bells, Strike me pink,
Pull the other one or Pull the other one it's got bells on it, I'm only pulling your leg, Knockers, Sheilas, As bold as brass. Alright vegemite, In a while crocodile, Wallopers,

Gotta see a man about a dog, shake the lily, water the lemon tree, Go and visit Auntie Mary, Go to the throne room, Go and visit Uncle Charlie, Go out back, Take a leak.

The one-eyed trouser snake, Camp as a row of tents,Deaf as a doorpost, Like a wet week, Ankle biters, Knock the stuffing out, Smoko, About bloody time, She's apples, OPs, Mossie, Parking possie, As dry as a dead dingo's donger, Up the pole

And so on and so on .....
Let's hear your favourites

And so on and so on...
Let's hear some of yours.


Have a nice day, Whistler.


If you can keep a sense of humour and see the funny side of life, you will never be old.

Some I use as a Native west coaster:

"heya" its like hey y'all (everyone)

"that's/it's fab" usually said sarcastically.

"that/it/him/her got raped" not literaly but as reference to someone being beaten at a game, or talking about cutting down trees in Brazil or something

"sweet/like/whatever/ya know" regular language dribble

I find that Australians have a good sense of humor....to a certain point. I've come to the limits a few times. It usually includes Australia itself. The typical English self-irony got a bit diluted down here...

My opinion.

quote:

the poor people who came to this country against their will

....against their will because they were criminals?

Canada slang: hoser

From a Californian to a Canadian:

Dude! are they still using "hoser" up there? How about "take off, eh?" Or are you stuck in a time warp, eh?

Of course California slang should rarely be mentioned because it changes every year. Dude seems to survive tho. Dude now means, "hey".

Hey, you should change your Karma title to "hoser".

It'd be like


Jester
Hoser


Please, please, please! I'll give you a bratwurst!

Nay, my dear Jester,not all convicts were criminals in the truest sense of the word. While there would be many who fit that description, a great many were not bad people. There were many, many people sent because they could not feed their families and stole a loaf of bread. Children as young as seven were sent as convicts, maids who had caught the attention of the masters son were sent as a way of getting rid of them.

And of course, a lot of Irish people, who were Catholics were sent as "political prisoners". Why? Because they spoke out against the harshness and brutality of a government that wanted to get rid of the "Irish question". These people if caught speaking their own language were convicted- because the English government in its wisdom????? enacted a law whereupon the Irish were forbidden to speak their own language. They wanted to stamp out the irish altogether. But there, that's another story and I've gotten on my soapbox . Sorry about that.


My point was that these people, even after having served their time and became "ticket of leave" men/women, were still treated under the English class system of the ruling classes, who had no time for anybody belonging to the "lowere orders", and took great offence at those who dared rise "above their station".

To get back on track, emmachisett, djavagoodweegend, and one of my favourites, Stone the crows. Take a long walk on a short pier, Kick the dunny door down, You got a broken leg, Fair go, Wowser, She'll be right, Battler, Point Percy at the porcelaine


Have a nice day, Whistler.


If you can keep a sense of humour and see the funny side of life, you will never be old. SMC

quote:

rid of the "Irish question". These people if caught speaking their own language

Language, dialect, what? Did it have a name? What language? Celtic? I don't even know what celtic means. I'm an idiot, I know. I'll look it up in wikipidia...


-----
Later...

Ooh I found it!
Celtic wiki entry

quote:

Celtic? I don't even know what celtic means.

The Irish speak Gaelic - the Welsh, also Celts, speak Cymraeg (aka Welsh). The English also tried to wipe out the Welsh language - even as lately as 100 years ago school children were still banned from speaking it school - if they were caught speaking it they were given the 'welsh not' and punished.

Thankfully they failed as Welsh is a great language and I'm learning it now. One of my favourite phrases is 'moog droog' - which translates as 'bad smoke' aka weed.

Logically thinking - Innuits have dozens of words for snow as they have lots of snow, the Brits have dozens of words for rain as they have lots of rain, so the fact that the Aussies have lots of words for dumb people surely means... I'll let you work that out.

Baltimore but surely many parts of the East Coast, and US:

Word- 1. an affirmation of agreement. (Question: "I'm going to the movies tonight, dawg - you want to go?" Response: "Word!") 2. When used as a question, equivalent to "Are you serious?" ("Statement: "I met Michael Jackson!" Response: "Word?" ... but also used for pretty much anything. As a seal of approval acknowledgement, etc.-"I got these new pants...." "Word."

I guess I should inject my southern US roots in here:

Ya'll - group of people

All Ya'll - multiple groups of people

We are always fixin' to do something as well.

"Twofer"

I think this is an Americanism that means "two for one", as in "Two Theater/Theatre tickets for the price of one" or "Paid for one meal, got the second one free", etc. It's since been expanded to mean "accomplishing two things with one stroke", much like everett's post above, which deserves to be recognized. In fact, that may have been a "threefer". Or more.

everett <--

quote:
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Logically thinking - Innuits have dozens of words for snow as they have lots of snow, the Brits have dozens of words for rain as they have lots of rain, so the fact that the Aussies have lots of words for dumb people surely means...I'll let you work that out.
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Thought that was rather funny everett. You had me chuckling there. Sorry to throw a spanner in the works, but we Australians are highly inventive when it comes to the colourful phrase, nickname or insult. Our rich and colourful slang reveals a lot about the Australian national pshcye. It seems we don't suffer fools gladly- whether the home-grown or the international variety.

I'm afraid we "Aussies" get enormous pleasure at the look of incomprehension on the face of the overseas visitor-it's priceless, a joy to behold. Now we don't mean to be unkind,
we sometimes cann't resist taking the mickey. We don't do this deliberately, at lesast not all the time. Like when I was in Christchurch chatting with a German and an Israeli,
and I said, "I was only pulling your leg". Huh??? So then I had to explain what that meant. He still didn't get it but fortunately the Israeli chap understood and started to explain. He told me he remembered hearing that phrase before.

Here is a well-known Australian joke:

There was an American (sorry but this is how the joke goes)
came to Australia to check out our farms (Ranches to you), and the little Aussie farmer proudly showed him around pointing out the corn and the American said "corn. You call that CORN? Why back in the States our corn grows twice as high". The farmer just nodded his head and smiled. Next, he showed him the wheatfields. The American said "Huh.Call that wheat? Why back in the States we grow twice as much wheat as you and ours is 3 foot higher". The farmer just smiled and nodded. Next, he showed him the cattle grazing, the American said, "Is that all you got? Why, back in the States we have three times as many head of cattle as you Aussies". Just then, a kangaroo hopped past. The American did an about face and said "What the hell was THAT?" The farmer looked him straight in the eye and said, "Don't you have grasshoppers where you come from?"

See what I mean by our sense of humour? Anyway hear are some phrases (explanations included!).


BOB'S YOUR UNCLE...means everything is fine.

ALL OVER THE PLACE LIKE A MADWOMAN'S BREAKFAST...in a state of chaos.

SANDWICH SHORT OF A PICNIC...lacking in intelligence.

SHOT THROUGH LIKE A BONDI TRAM...departed hastily.

THICK AS A BRICK/THICK AS THE DUST ON A PUBLIC SERVANT'S OUT-TRAY...stupid, dull, slow-witted.

WALKING PAPERS...the sack, dismissal notice.

OFF LIKE A BUCKET OF PRAWNS...to depart hastily.

ON A GOOD THING...to be involved in a successful venture or activity.
ON A GOOD WICKET...to have a successful (and possibly not demanding) job.

ON A STICKY WICKET...in trouble.
HUMDINGER...excellent!

NOT ON YOUR NELLIE...absolutely not! under no circumstances.

KANGAROOS IN THE TOP PADDOCK...insane, or not thinking properly.

GET YOUR DANDER UP... to become angry

GO OFF HALF-COCKED...to enter something usually enterprise unprepared.

GO DOWN THE GURGLER...to go down the plughole,i.e. go broke or out of business.

FLOG THE CAT...to indulge in self-pity.

FAIR CRACK OF THE WHIP...request for reasonable treatment.

USEFUL AS A FLYWIRE DOOR ON A SUBMARINE...useless.

WHACKO-THE-DIDDLE-OH...expression of jubilation.

HAPPY AS A BASTARD ON FATHER'S DAY...miserable, depressed.

And lastly, THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN SALUTE...No, it is not a rude gesture whereby two fingers stick up, it is the motion of your hand flapping away the ever present flies!

There are of course many more, but I have a feeling the Moderators may be "chucking a wobbly" at the length of this post and I might find it as "easy as spearing an eel with a spoon" next time. I don't want them(the Moderators) to "spit the dummy" so I'll go and have a "heart-starter".


Have a nice day, Whistler.


If you can keep a sense of humour and see the funny side of life, you will never be old. SMC.

My American friends here and I have all bonded over our command of English as a native language amidst the European English spoken by everyone else, and along with that... our slang. And we tend to bring the ghetto out of each other.

quote:

Word- 1. an affirmation of agreement. (Question: "I'm going to the movies tonight, dawg - you want to go?" Response: "Word!") 2. When used as a question, equivalent to "Are you serious?" ("Statement: "I met Michael Jackson!" Response: "Word?" ... but also used for pretty much anything. As a seal of approval acknowledgement, etc.-"I got these new pants...." "Word."

Funny story... a group was meeting one night, and our Mexican friend sent us an sms to say where they were. My single reply to him was "word". When I got there, he showed me the reply from another American coming. It simply said, "word".

Whack- strange, no good, shitty, lame, fucked up, etc.

Douche, douchebag, doucheface, pile of douche- This already came up in another thread. I tried to explain why the bouncer at a club was a douchebag to my naive Polish friend. She still doesn't get it...

Chillin- I was in a bar in Dublin, started talking to someone people. One asked what I was doin in Dublin. I said, "Just chillin." He said, "Ah, ye moost be American. American's are always chillin."

Yo- it just gets thrown in a lot, usually as a greeting, to get someone's attention, or to start a conversation

Let's bust, time to bust, we're bustin, I'm out- time to leave

What's good- how you doin, what's going on, etc

The crib- where I live

Where you stayin at, where do you stay, where's your crib- Where do you live

Talkin to- hooking up with. "The girl I'm talking to..."

Random Dutch words like fiets- bike; lekker- tasty, goed- good, that aren't slang, but become it when we use them in English.

Everett you don't know what celtic means, then

Celtic nations
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The Six Nations considered the heartland of the modern CeltsCeltic nations are areas of Europe inhabited by members of Celtic cultures, specifically speakers of Celtic languages. Since the mid-20th century, people of many nations and regions have used modern 'Celticity' to express their identity. Over time, these nations have come to be more or less widely labeled as Celtic. These Celtic places in Europe are sometimes also referred to as the "Celt belt" or "Celtic Fringe" owing to their location in the generally north-western part of the regions that they inhabit (e.g. Brittany is in the northwest of France, the Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland and Ireland are in the northwest and west, respectively). However, these terms are sometimes interpreted as derogatory, so residents of these lands tend to prefer the term "Celtic nations".

At one time the whole British Isles was predominantly Cruthin/Celtic. The Romans called Britain Britannias and Britanniae after Britto meaning Cruithne, resulting in the word British, which in Old English implied an association with the whole British Isles[1]. Successive invasions supplanted the Brythonic language from most of Great Britain, but the prefix Brit- is now more closely associated with Great Britain than with its Celtic roots.



There's the wiki entry.

Yeah, I think you got my drift on the "why do aussies have so many words for dumb people" comment.

God bless Steve Irwin.

Thanks jediboobo, but I didn't mean to suggest that I didn't know what Celtic was - as I live in a Celtic nation that would be poor going.

I've never heard of us referred to as a Celtic fringe though.

As well as culture and language I think what also ties the Celtic nations together is a hatred of the English, and a whole new thread could probably be started on slang terms for the English!