Category: Oxford Word of the Month
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Word of the Month – July: cruisy
adjective: easy; relaxed, easy-going. In her recent autobiography Australian senator Jacqui Lambie describes one of her army postings in this way: ‘There were only a few of us at the field hospital, and it was a cruisy placement, but it was not what I wanted to do.’ (Rebel With a Cause, 2018) And in another…
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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 – May: stack hat
noun: a bicycle helmet; a safety helmet for sporting activities. For many Australian children, owning a bike is a ticket to freedom. Older generations will recall the days when it was normal for kids to tear around the neighbourhood on bikes, unsupervised and bare-headed. Today attitudes have changed, along with regulations that require cyclists to…
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Word of the Month – April: rolled-gold
adjective: first-class; absolute. Rolled-gold is used in Australian English to imply something undeniably good, first-class or genuine, such as a rolled-gold opportunity or a rolled-gold offer. Evidence dates from the early 1980s. The term is often found in the phrase rolled-gold guarantee, notably used in early 2018 by National Party deputy leader Bridget McKenzie, who gave a ‘rolled-gold guarantee’ that Barnaby Joyce would…
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Word of the Month – March: Tassie tuxedo
noun: (also Tasmanian tuxedo) a quilted jacket filled with a light insulating material; a puffer jacket. In the online version of the Lonely Planet travel guide, some helpful advice is given to those contemplating a trip to Tasmania (or Tassie): A ‘Tassie tuxedo’ – aka a down-filled ‘puffer’ jacket – is mandatory Tasmanian garb in…
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Word of the Month – February: fair dinkumness
noun: reliability; genuineness; honesty; truthfulness. A headline for a recent online article reads: ‘Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister for fair dinkumness, is losing election options fast’. The article mentions a debate surrounding that most Australian of traditions, the sausage sizzle: At a more retail political level, the Prime Minister for fair dinkumness got himself involved…
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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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Word of the Month – November: chicken salt
Chicken salt: noun a type of spiced salt used for flavouring, esp. with hot chips. THE STORY BEHIND THE WORD OF THE MONTH Many Australians love to flavour their take-away hot chips with something known as chicken salt. In recent years, this much-loved condiment has begun to go global, with people in the USA and the UK…