Oxford Australia Blog

Sharing our love of education, language, and books

Tag: Dictionaries

  • Oxford Word of the Month – August: Tip turkey

    tip turkey – noun: the white ibis, Threskiornis moluccus, often regarded as a pest in urban areas because of its scavenging at tips, etc. The Australian white ibis, Threskiornis moluccus, is widespread across Australia, and naturally inhabits wetlands where it feeds on small invertebrates, especially crustaceans. As part of the ibis family the white ibis…

  • Oxford Word of the Month – July: Hoon operation

    Hoon operation (also anti-hoon operation, hooning operation) – noun: a police campaign targeting dangerous drivers. A 2015 media release by the Queensland Police Service stated: Police are investigating after a vehicle allegedly evaded them and later crashed at Yatala following a targeted hoon operation late last night. (Australian Government News, 12 April) The term hoon…

  • Oxford Word of the Month – June: Hubbard

    hubbard – noun: an inexperienced, unskilled, or unfashionably attired cyclist. Warning: this article contains explicit language. A posting on the Urban Dictionary website from February 2008 proposed a definition for the word hubbard: An uncool, slow, unfashionable, annoying, awkward or stupid cyclist. Often identified by wearing a helmet that is more than 15 years old,…

  • The greatest enterprise of its time – The Oxford English Dictionary

    It’s Wednesday 6 June 1928 and Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister, is officially launching a book that has taken 70 years to complete. ‘Our histories, our novels, our poems, our plays – they are all in this one book,’ he says. ‘It is true that I have not read it – perhaps I never…

  • Oxford Word of the Month – May: Spill

    spill – noun: the deliberate creation of vacant positions in a cabinet, political party, or organisation. In recent months in 2015, we have seen an attempt by Federal backbencher MPs of the Liberal Party to put forward a spill motion. Had this motion been successful, it would have led to a spill, where (in this…

  • Bogan—from obscurity to Australia’s most productive word?

    In this article, reproduced from our latest issue of Ozwords, Mark Gwynn explores the evolution of the Australian English word ‘bogan’. In the mid 1980s, a new Australian term appeared in youth slang for a person regarded as uneducated and unsophisticated, especially such a person from a working-class background. This term was bogan. The earliest…

  • Oxford Word of the Month – April: Big Stoush

    Big Stoush – noun: the First World War. A number of different terms evolved during the years 1914–18 to refer to the war that involved so many countries of the world and caused so many casualties. In English, the terms world war and Great War were first recorded in 1914. The Oxford English Dictionary first…

  • Gift guide for lovers of food and language

    You have the kids covered for Christmas, but what about the adults?! ‘Tis the season for gift guides, so we have selected a variety of titles to help you buy for all of the foodies, history buffs, language lovers and word nerds in your life. Books make the best gifts so take advantage of our special…