Category: Language
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Do you say Brisbane, Brissy, Brisso, Brisvegas, Brisbantinople, or Brisganistan?
by Mark GwynnSenior Researcher at the Australian National Dictionary Centre In August, the ANDC launched the first annual appeal for contributions to our archive of Australian English. As well as supplementing our database, these appeals will help us identify possible new entries for the Australian National Dictionary (AND). Each annual appeal will focus on a…
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Word of the Month – October: dog shot
noun: a sudden blow; a king-hit. verb: to hit (a person) suddenly and without warning; to king hit (a person). In an apology sent via text message, a rugby league player defended the actions of his group when they became involved in a fight outside a night club: ‘“… we never dog shotted any of…
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Word of the Month – June: mud map
noun: (in figurative use) a rough guide, plan, or strategy. Making a mud map is an activity with a long history in Australia. The term is first recorded in 1879, although the act of drawing a simple map on the ground is no doubt much older. The literal, map-in-the-dust sense is alive and well in…
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Word of the Month – January: Pinkie
Pinkie: noun a baby marsupial that has not yet grown fur, and is too young to leave its mother’s pouch. THE STORY BEHIND THE WORD OF THE MONTH Winter months in Australia see a rise in the number of vehicles colliding with animals, especially native animals such as kangaroos. This is due to shorter daylight hours,…
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How dictionaries preserve and celebrate Australian English
Through the last 30 years, the Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC), in collaboration with Oxford University Press (OUP), has produced Australia’s most authoritative and successful dictionaries, as well as a significant number of research monographs. This body of work has documented the rich history and contemporary dimensions of Australian English. Before the production of the…
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Word of the Month – December: flog
Flog: noun (derogatory) a pretentious or conceited person; a fool. THE STORY BEHIND THE WORD OF THE MONTH A reader’s comment, published in a community newspaper in 2012, uses the word flog as an insult: ‘Lazy Phoners: If you use your hands-free on the phone when your hands are free, you’re a flog.’ (Brisbane MX, 10…
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The Oxford Australian Children’s Word of the Year is Creativity
‘Creativity’ has been named the 2018 Australian Children’s Word of the Year. Bravery, pollution, technology and environment were all strong contenders for the 2018 Oxford Australian Children’s Word of the Year but it was creativity that was today named this year’s winner. More than 500 entries were submitted by primary school and home-schooled children across…
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‘I can’t believe it’s not chicken!’: Mock foods in the Australian Women’s Weekly
By Lauren Samuelsson Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Alice, ‘Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?’ ‘No,’ said Alice. ‘I don’t even know what a Mock Turtle is.’ ‘It’s the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from,’ said the Queen. — Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1869….