Ask an Aussie to name a truly Australian word, and they might yell "Bonzer!" Bonzer, sometimes also spelled bonza, means "first-rate" or "excellent," and it is the Australian equivalent of the American "awesome": "It's a good clean game ... and the standard is red hot," Thies said.
Fanny is an extremely offensive Australasian slang term for the female genitalia, so announcing to an Australasian that you ``patted your friend on the fanny'' can can leave him or her with decidedly the wrong impression. The word you are searching for is bum.
Lemony means annoyed, as in, I got lemony at the kid. This piece of Aussie slang dates back to the 1940s.
Certainly if you're in the US, your mother is your “mom” – short for “mommy” and in the UK, Australia and New Zealand it's “mum” – shortened from “mummy”.
The most common verbal greeting is a simple “Hey”, “Hello”, or “Hi”. Some people may use Australian slang and say “G'day” or “G'day mate”. However, this is less common in cities. Many Australians greet by saying “Hey, how are you?”.
Ankle biter – small child • Apples, she'll be – it'll be all right • Arvo – afternoon • Aussie (pronounced 'Ozzie') –Australian • Aussie salute – brushing away flies with the hand • Back of Bourke – a very long way away • Barbie or BBQ – barbecue (noun) • Big smoke – a big city, especially Sydney or Melbourne • Bikkie ...
Mate. “Mate” is a popular word for friend. And while it's used in other English-speaking countries around the world, it has a special connection to Australia. In the past, mate has been used to address men, but it can be gender-neutral. In Australia, you'll also hear mate used in an ironic sense.
Bogan is the most significant word to be created in Australian English in the past 40 years. It is defined as "an uncultured and unsophisticated person; a boorish and uncouth person" in the 2016 edition of the Australian National Dictionary.
Nenagh Kemp, a psychologist at the University of Tasmania, told Australian Geographic her theories behind why Australians use these shortened words so often. Her theory is that Australians use them as a way of coming across as more friendly and less pretentious.
While some Australian speakers would pronounce “no” as a diphthong, starting on “oh” as in dog and ending on “oo” as in put, others begin with an unstressed “a” (the sound at the end of the word “sofa”), then move to the “oh” and then “oo”.
Crikey: an exclamation of surprise is the best way to describe the uniquely Aussie term that is crikey. Crook: a word that has many meanings depending on the context. If you're feeling unwell, you could say you are crook. If someone is angry, you could say they've 'gone crook'.
"The most challenging Australian word I've ever seen for Americans to pronounce is 'Cairns. ' It's like it uses a vowel they just don't have. They really want to pronounce the 'r' in it, whereas Aussies rarely pronounce 'r' unless it's at the start of the syllable."
cocky. A small-scale farmer; (in later use often applied to) a substantial landowner or to the rural interest generally. In Australia there are a number of cockies including cow cockies, cane cockies and wheat cockies. Cocky arose in the 1870s and is an abbreviation of cockatoo farmer.