Sharks themselves have been dubbed 'Noah's arks', in an example of Australian rhyming slang (another import from our British origins), sometimes abbreviated to 'Noahs'.
Noah's ark can be found from the late 19th century in Australian English as a rhyming slang term for 'nark', meaning an informer. The shark sense is first recorded from the 1930s.
Very angry; crazy; eccentric. The phrase also takes the form mad as a snake. The different senses of the phrase derive from the fact that 'mad' has two main senses - 'crazy' and 'angry'.
Cozzie – swimming costume • Cranky – in a bad mood, angry • Crook – sick, or badly made • Cut lunch – sandwiches • Dag – a funny person • Daks – trousers • Dinkum, fair dinkum – true, real, genuine • Dipstick – a loser, idiot • Down Under – Australia and New Zealand • Dunny – outside toilet • Earbashing – nagging • ...
'Struth' is a contraction of the words 'God's truth'.
Contributor's comments: We use the term in Tassie as well, you say that someone is a bush pig, or a feral. It has become quite a broad insult to females mainly, not necessarily meaning that they are unkempt.
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.
Contributor's comments: The meaning of Bubs I grew up with is a baby, or quite often the youngest member of the family is called "bubs" from an older sibling.
Bludger. (Noun) A lazy person. “I'm running around like a headless chook organising this bloody barbie, and Johnno's just sitting there like a bludger!”
In Australia, barbecuing is a popular summer pastime, often referred to as a "barbie". Traditional meats cooked are lamb chops, beef steak, and sausages (colloquially known as "snags").
For instance, the Jim-brits or Jimmy Britts, shortened to “the jimmies,” is Australian rhyming slang for diarrhoea; “Jimmy” (or “Jimmy Grant”) is an immigrant, so not only is this a deft expression, it is also a neat insult of the Australians' traditional enemy.
Many people recognize phrases like "shrimp on the barbie" (which isn't actually said in Australia), and "roo" (for kangaroo), but there are many more phrases that you'd hear during a trip or English course in Australia.
A fool, a simpleton, an idiot. There is also a bird called a drongo. The spangled drongo is found in northern and eastern Australia, as well as in the islands to the north of Australia, and further north to India and China.
While NSW took the 'costume' part to create cossies, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania, ran with 'bathing'. Bathers became the name synonymous with swimwear in these parts, with the term outranking all others in the country.
speedos – generic term for men's swimming briefs which originated in Australia, from the brand name (see Speedo). Known colloquially as sluggos, budgie smugglers.
The Australian Great White… Australia is a country seemingly full of all sorts of dangerous creatures – both on land and below the surface. But the Australian Great White Shark inspires more fear and loathing than just about any other animal down-under. Referred to locally as White Pointers.
Stunner. To start off with a really good all-rounder, “stunner” is a common one that you can use. Most commonly, stunner is used to describe a person—often not to their face. So, someone who is particularly attractive would be a stunner: “I met this total stunner the other night,” for example.
This could occur because the word “no” is an example of what linguists call an open syllable, meaning it has no consonant at its close. This allows the speaker to lengthen the vowel and draw it out – a feature we love in different Australian accents!
Aussie Word of the Week
A blue is a fight, dispute or row. You can bung on a blue, stack on a blue or turn on a blue. The slang word has been around since the 1940s and is used to refer to everything from fisticuffs at the pub to a brawl on the footy field.
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”.
Cockroach – someone from New South Wales. Dead horse – rhyming slang for tomato sauce. Devo – short for devastated, used to show how upset someone is, as in 'I'm devo that I dropped my pie on the ground'. Dodgy – not quite right, disagreeable or suspicious.
Chinwag or chin-wag is a very slang way of saying to have a chat.
In Australian English a goog is an egg. It is an abbreviation of the British dialect word goggy 'a child's name for an egg', retained in Scotland as goggie. The phrase is a variation of an earlier British phrase in the same sense: full as a tick, recorded from the late 17th century.
Jumbuck is an Australian word for a 'sheep'. It is best known from Banjo Paterson's use of it in Waltzing Matilda.