Oxford Australia Blog

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Tag: #KnowYourAussie

  • 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,…

  • Designing the cover of the Australian National Dictionary second edition

    As publication of the Australian National Dictionary second edition approaches, we thought we’d share the story behind the cover. We spoke to designer Sue Dani about her experience creating the covers for the dictionary. What was the brief you were given? The brief was very open, but key areas of consideration were that it had to reflect…

  • Introduction to the Australian National Dictionary Second Edition: Part Two

    Editor Bruce Moore, in his Introduction to the dictionary, describes the history and methodology of this significant work of Australian lexicography. We reproduce the first part of the Introduction here. Read Part One of the Introduction to the Australian National Dictionary second edition. History of the Editing In the early period of research for the…

  • Introduction to the Australian National Dictionary Second Edition: Part One

    Editor Bruce Moore, in his Introduction to the dictionary, describes the history and methodology of this significant work of Australian lexicography. We reproduce the first part of the Introduction here. The Australian National Dictionary (hereafter AND) is a dictionary based on historical principles, and it is therefore concerned with the way the words that make…