Tuesday, April 8, 2014

His Living in America: G'day and Other Shortened Words.

The A-Z Challenge continues with the letter G.



Two of Australia's most famous landmarks.
One thing that I learned very quickly when I first came to America was that although Australia and America may both speak English, we don't all use the same words. Australians love to shorten many of their words and that is the topic for today's post. Some of them are well known outside of Australia, like "G'day", but others are almost unheard of outside of the great land down under. 


Here are just a few of them:

Ambo: Short for ambulance driver or paramedic. "Please move over for the Ambo."

Arvo: Short for afternoon. "See you sometime in the arvo."

Bikkie: Short for cookie. "Want some bikkies with you tea?" 

Bottle-O: Short for bottle shop or liquor store. "Can you pick up some Toohey's from the Bottle-O?"

Brekkie: Short for breakfast. "What's for brekkie?" 

Bundy: Short for Bundaberg Rum which is one of Australia's most popular rums. "Bundy is my favorite liquor!"

Chewie: Short for chewing or bubble gum. "Want a piece of chewie?"

Chrissy: Short for Christmas. "What do you want for Chrissy?" 

Cozzie: Short for swimming costume/swimsuit. "Don't forget your cozzie, you are going to the pool after school."

Out at the footy game
Footy: Short for football. "You going to the footy tonight?"


Garbo: Short for garbage collector. "That garbo is making a lot of noise picking outside."

Grundies: Short for underwear. "Do I have any clean grundies?"

Kero: Short for kerosene. "Kero is getting pretty expensive these days."

Kindie: Short for Kindergarten. "Cara is starting Kindie next year."

Lippy: Short for lipstick. "Does this color lippy look good with my skin tone?"
 
Time for Macca's
Macca's: Short for McDonald's. "Wanna grab some brekkie at Macca's mate?"



Pav: Short for Pavlova, a very popular dessert in Australia. "Please make pav for my birthday dinner."

Pokies: Short for poker machines/slot machines. "Going to play the pokies tonight?"

Polly: Short for politican: "That polly doesn't know what he is talking about." 

Prezzy: Short for present/gift. "I brought you a prezzy for your birthday."

Postie: Short for postal worker. "I can't wait for the postie to show up with the mail."

Pozzy: Short for position. "I got a great pozzy in line to buy tickets."

Me and some of the rellies.
Rellie: Short for relatives. "Heading off to Newy to see the rellies."

Sanga: Short for sandwich. "Want a ham and cheese sanga for lunch?"


Servo: Short for service station/gas station. "I'm going to the servo for some petrol."

Smoko: Short for smoke break/coffee break. "Is it time for a smoko yet?"

Sunnies: Short for sunglasses. "It's sunny outside so you are gonna need your sunnies."

Swaggie: Short for swagman/hobo. "Wonder where that swaggie is going?"

Tinnie: Short for a small metal boat. "I'm going out fishing on the tinnie later on."

Trackies: Short for tracksuit. "I'm wearing trackies for my run today because it's cold."

Taking the ute out for a spin on the beach.
Ute: Short for utility vehicle/truck. "Can I take the utes to the shops?"

Yakka: Short for hard work. "Lifting that furniture was hard yakka!"

Yobbo: Short for a loud and obnoxious person. "My mate is a real yobbo after he has a few drinks."

There are many more Aussie slang words that I will save for a future post. What is your favourite aussie slang word?



10 comments:

  1. Very cool! Thanks for sharing these Australian slang terms. I found it very interesting and btw, grundies was my favorite.
    Shawn from Laughing at Life 2

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  2. Aussies (Australians, see another shortened word) always seem so very relaxed and laid back, and the way they shorten words is all part of this. I always imagine these words being spoken with a nice grin. Of those words I do like Sunnies and am going to steal that one.

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  3. We call McDonalds MaccyDs. So nice to follow and connect with an a to z challenger, and I look forward to more posts. http://aimingforapublishingdeal.blogspot.co.uk/

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  4. Here's some more for you Sean, reggies - underwear, clobber - clothes or hitting someone, Trackie's - tracksuit, flannie - shirt, togs- swimmers, knoggin - head, and last but not least bogan - meaning dickhead or holden driver, lol.

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  5. PS nice picky of my olds, they are just too awesome :)

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  6. Oh, thought of another, this being my favourite, dunny meaning toilet. Im really surprised you didn't get that one Sean, lol

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  7. What a fun post. I used to write to a lady in Austrailia and never knew what she meant by Arvo. Pokie is my favorite word. Here in the USA being the pokey means being in jail.
    I am a new follower. Looks like a fun blogsite

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  8. This was cute; I learned some new things, I like Macca, sounds much better than McDonald's! I'm also going to print this off just in case I ever get to Australia, so I can learn to speak some of the lingo!

    betty

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  9. There's quite a few things there that we say in England. We say brekkie, footy and chewy. Sometimes people say biccie for biscuit and we call McDonald's maccies. Only Australian's and English say mate as well as far as I know.

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  10. I had no idea there were so many abbreviations...fun read!

    Donna B. McNicol
    A to Z Participant

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