Tag: Australian National University
-
Oxford Word of the Month: December – John Farnham
noun: used allusively of a comeback or reappearance, especially after a final performance or retirement. THE STORY BEHIND THE WORD OF THE MONTH John Farnham (‘Johnny’ in his early days) is a hugely successful Australian contemporary pop singer. His professional career spans fifty years from the 1960s until the present, and his 1986 album Whispering…
-
Oxford Word of the Month: November – platypup
noun: a baby platypus. THE STORY BEHIND THE WORD OF THE MONTH There is some discussion on the Internet about the correct name for a baby platypus. Some commentators note that a baby platypus may be called a puggle, while others say that puggle refers only to a baby echidna. The following writer has an…
-
Oxford Word of the Month: December – koala diplomacy
noun: Australia’s use of koalas as diplomatic gifts to other countries; a form of Australian soft power diplomacy. THE STORY BEHIND THE WORD OF THE MONTH In May 1994, Australia arranged for a koala called Blinky Bill (named after a famous koala in Australian children’s fiction) and his younger half-brother, Kupala, to spend some time…
-
Words for pie (and why they’re all unappetising)
The humble meat pie is as Aussie as it gets. The iconic fist-sized pastry is light, flaky and golden on the outside, and filled with piping hot minced meat and gravy on the inside – perfect as a frosty winter’s day meal at the footy or a cheap, tasty snack from the servo. In the…
-
Upcoming events for the Australian National Dictionary Second Edition
To celebrate the publication of the second edition of the Australian National Dictionary, there will be events in Sydney and Melbourne this September. Starting on Thursday September 8 at 6 pm Abbey’s Bookshop in Sydney will be hosting an event with AND 2e editors Bruce Moore (former director of the Australian National Dictionary Centre) and Amanda Laugesen…
-
Australian food and drink quiz
Think you know your long blacks from your babyccinos or your cheerios from your chiko rolls? Australian cuisine, as food critic John Newton once wrote, is a bit of a ‘mongrel’, incorporating British, Mediterranean, Asian and native Australian cooking styles and ingredients. The Australian National Dictionary 2e contains a multitude of food-related slang terms, many of…
-
Rhyming slang in the Australian National Dictionary
The recent publication of the second edition of the Australian National Dictionary is the culmination of more than 20 years of research into the history of our unique Australian lexicon. The scope of the dictionary, as defined in the first edition by editor W.S. Ramson, includes ‘words and meanings which have originated in Australia, which…
-
Did you know?
The platypus, a.k.a. duck-mole, paradox, water-mole, duck-bill, is the outcast of the Australian animal kingdom: ‘it is like a puppy in the body, with four webbed duck’s feet, two wings, a beaver’s tail, and a goose’s head and bill; now a country that can produce such a monstrosity as this can produce anything’ (J.A. Edwards,…