For instance, Australians will usually say 'soccer' instead of 'football' and 'overalls' instead of 'dungarees'. A 'lorry' is referred to as a 'truck' and the word 'pants' is used in place of 'trousers'.
Lorry is also common in Irish English. And while the word is not absent from Australian and New Zealand publications, it is less common than truck.
This is the exact reason why the Australian ute which is an abbreviation for utility vehicle is referred to by Americans as a truck. It's really not uncommon in our world for locales to adopt their own unique terminology for the same object.
Truck is used in American English, and is common in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa, while lorry is the equivalent in British English, and is the usual term in countries like Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore and India.
The term road train is used in Australia. In contrast with a more common semi-trailer towing one trailer or semi-trailer, the prime mover of a road train hauls two or more trailers or semi-trailers.
For instance, Australians will usually say 'soccer' instead of 'football' and 'overalls' instead of 'dungarees'. A 'lorry' is referred to as a 'truck' and the word 'pants' is used in place of 'trousers'.
The term road train is used in Australia. In contrast with a more common semi-trailer towing one trailer or semi-trailer, the prime mover of a road train hauls two or more trailers or semi-trailers.
In British English, a lorry is a large vehicle used for transporting goods by road. The lorries were carrying 42 tonnes of sand. In American English, and increasingly in British English, a vehicle like this is called a truck.
Origin of the Term Lorry
It is actually unclear where the word lorry stemmed from, but a widely known belief is that lorry came from the English dialect verb “lurry” which means to lag, pull, or drag along. People also believed that lorry stemmed from the old British railway industry.
"a truck; a long wagon with a flat bed and four wheels," 1838, British railroad word, probably from verb lurry "to pull, tug" (1570s), which is of uncertain origin. Meaning "large motor vehicle for carrying goods on roads" (equivalent of U.S. truck) is first attested 1911.
/ˈlɒri/ us. plural lorries (UK and US also truck)
Bingle: a minor car accident. Bonnet: North Americans know this as the hood of a car. Boot: the trunk of a car. Booze bus: how Australians refer to mobile breath testing units. You might spot these big vans on the side of the road where police are conducting random breath tests of motorists.
The terms lorry and truck can be confusing for those not in the industry, but the reality is that both terms can be used interchangeably. 'Truck' is often used in American contexts while the word 'lorry' is more common in the United Kingdom.
The British refer to trucks as “lorries”. The Australians refer to them as trucks but they call an articulated truck/trailer a semi trailer (a tractor-trailer in the US) The Australian road transport also includes “B Doubles”, a prime mover (tractor) with two articulated trailers.
Utility four-wheelers, which Australians often call quad bikes, became the center of a national safety debate in the last year.
A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semi, tractor-trailer, big rig, eighteen-wheeler, or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) articulated lorry or artic is a vehicle that has a towing tractor and a semi-trailer that carries the freight. They use diesel fuel.
The answer is pretty simple: semi-truck or semi is actually short for semi-trailer truck. The “semi” part of the title has nothing to do with the size of the big rig, but everything to do with what the tractor is pulling behind it.
The British term for the rear storage space is the boot and the Americans call it a trunk.
What is pickup truck called in New Zealand? In Australia and New Zealand, both pickups and coupé utilities are called utes, short for utility vehicle.
Runners: this is what Australians call their sneakers or trainers.
Aussie Word of the Week
Underdaks, also called underchunders or underdungers, is a colloquial name for your underpants. Daks are trousers, therefore underdaks must logically be underwear. Simple.
car repair shop: the regionalism is in the pronunciation - South-west Aussies say gar arj; Melbournians say garage as in carriage. Contributor's comments: Victorians say "gar arj"! Editor's comments: It is very difficult to restrict any single pronunciation to a definite area.