Battler (especially in its present manifestation of little Aussie battler) is one of the most positive words in Australian English, and it usually refers to a person who works hard to make a decent living in difficult circumstances. The Australian National University, Canberra Home Most scholars believe dinkum was a dialect word from the East Midlands of England, where it meant "hard work" or "fair work", which was also the original meaning in Australian English. Dinkum emerges at about the same time. This list is not intended to be comprehensive. The vocabulary of Australian English comes from many sources. Wanarua. No events are currently scheduled. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. in the languages once spoken between Kempsey Newcastle, viz. An example of a word of Australian derivation adopted in Britain, and elsewhere, with little awareness of its origin. Other Aussie sayings from the aforementioned lists are also seldom used by the young people. A. a good job. He's such a dag. not working, broken, impaired, injured or infected. A number of the most culturally important Australian terms developed towards the end of the nineteenth century, at precisely the time that Australian English was generating its Cultivated and Broad forms. It was out of the First World War that Anzac (an acronym formed from the initial letters of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) and digger (originally a soldier engaged in the digging of trenches, echoing its earlier use for a person digging for gold) emerged in the sense ‘an Australian soldier’. The bludger is a person who lives off the efforts of others, a cadger and an idler, a person who expects others to do all the work. The aim is to ensure there are no formal class distinctions in Australian society.’. Little or no chance of doing or achieving something. A puritanical or censorious person, in particular a teetotaller or person opposed to alcohol. Such terms are part of a rich tradition of Australian colloquialisms that became established in the first half of the twentieth century, including: "Cannot" vs. "Can Not": What's The Difference? At times, reference is made to the Australian Oxford Dictionary (OUP 1999) edited by Bruce Moore. This document outlines some of the most important sources of Australian words, and some of the important historical events that have shaped the creation of Australian words. holding someone back by the neck or garment. Initially, the battler was a person who scrounged a living on the edges of society. To wring someone's neck. ", excrement hanging from the wool around a sheep's backside, a derogratory term for variety of modern day "white-trash", commonly stereotyped as unclean in habits and living rough in the bush, to treat something roughly (driving too fast and carelessly is to "give it a flogging"), another name for a man, woman, or animal with an ape appearance, to take something with no direct recompense, somewhat like, a union worker who goes to work when the company is on strike, a non-union worker that breaks picket lines to work when the normal workers are on strike, one who is tight with money or possessions, an unattractive woman. Aggro – aggressive. Nicknames for Australian banknotes, derived from their colour: Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary, term to describe Australians of Southern European descent, Appendix:Australian English terms for animals, Appendix:Australian English terms for body parts, Appendix:Australian English terms for clothing, Appendix:Australian English terms for food and drink, Appendix:Australian English football terms, Appendix:Australian English geographic terms, Appendix:Australian English terms pertaining to money and wealth, Appendix:Australian English motoring terms, Appendix:Old, declining or expired Australian vocabulary, Appendix:Australian English terms for people, Appendix:Colloquial Australian English proper nouns, Appendix:Colloquial Australian English similes, Appendix:Australian English smoking terms, Appendix:Australian English terms pertaining to the toilet, excrement, urine or vomit, List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin, List of Australian place names of Aboriginal origin, Aussie English for beginners — the origins, meanings and a quiz to test your knowledge, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Appendix:Australian_English_vocabulary&oldid=54111285, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, an embarrassing mistake (for example, "I've made a blue.