Australians say "banana" much like other English speakers, but often shorten it to "nana," a common term since the 1890s, with the second syllable stressed ("buh-NAA-nuh"), sometimes leaning towards a quicker "buh-nan-uh" sound in their distinctive accent.
If you cast your minds back, you may remember calling the humble banana a nana as a child. Originally an Australian toddler's word, dating back to the 1890s, this is now a very common term. So common in fact, that Australian Bananas uses it as well.
Another classic case of Australians shortening everything. Meaning 'thank you', ta is usually used for the times when you are in a rush or want to send a quick text to show your appreciation for something.
What does 🍌 mean? 🍌 can be sexual slang (referring to male genitalia) or drug slang (referring to prescription pills, drugs in general, or oxycodone).
The terms pommy, pommie, and pom used in Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand usually denote a British person. Newspapers in Australia were using the term by 1912, with it appearing first in Western Australia, and was said to be short for pomegranate, with the terms "jimmy" and "jimmigrant" also in use.
Woop Woop is used to refer to a place in the middle of nowhere. People use it to signify that a location is far away, unfamiliar to them, and difficult to get to.
Meanwhile, a more recent term, seemingly American in origin, is ta-tas, or tatas, meaning breasts. It's been especially prominent since 2004, when an anti-breast-cancer foundation was founded with the name “Save the Ta-tas,” prompting many t-shirts such as the admitted click-bait at the top of this post.
"Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy, Oi Oi Oi" (often written as "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi") is a patriotic Australian sports chant, a rallying cry of national pride, originating from older British cheers like "Oggy Oggy Oggy," with "Aussie" being slang for Australian, and "Oi" functioning as an emphatic interjection, similar to "Hey!" or "Go!". It's used at sporting events, sometimes considered a bit cheesy or "cringey" by some Australians, but generally seen as an inclusive way to support national teams.
It is pronounced one letter at a time, though the band are colloquially known as Acca Dacca in Australia. The AC/DC band name is stylised with a lightning bolt separating the AC from DC and has been used on all studio albums, except the international version of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.
The name dates back to the 1860s and is tied to a bullock named Banana. Renowned for his yellowish, dun-coloured coat, Banana was a favourite of local stockmen and played a key role in herding wild cattle into holding yards. In tribute to his service, the gully where he worked was named after him when he passed away.
Slang. crazy; deranged. All that chatter is driving me bananas. wildly enthusiastic. The crowd went bananas when the music began.
An Australian classic, “no worries” is often said instead of “that's alright” or “it was no trouble”. Similarly, you might hear “no dramas”, which means the same thing. If you thank someone for helping you and they say “no worries” or “no dramas” it means it was no problem for them to assist you.
"Straya" is a colloquial, affectionate, and humorous slang term for Australia, representing a shortened, phonetic pronunciation of the country's name, often used in a casual context to show national identity and a laid-back attitude. It embodies the Australian tendency to shorten words and can be heard in phrases like "G'day, Straya!".
In this mini episode of Aussie English I explain the expressing “Far Out” which is often used as a way of expression surprise or that you are impressed by something. Improve your listening skills today – listen, play, & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!
"Hoo-ha" (or hoo-hah) slang means a noisy fuss, commotion, or excitement, often over something trivial, but it can also euphemistically refer to female genitalia. It's an informal term for a "brouhaha," "hullabaloo," or general to-do, signifying uproar or fuss, but sometimes used to describe a state of arousal or, less commonly, male anatomy, though its primary use is for commotion or female anatomy.
inferior in character or quality; seedy; sleazy.
Australians use a couple of other colloquial words for a hen's egg. The Australian English word googie or goog is an informal term that dates from the 1880s. It derives from British dialect goggy, a child's word for an egg. A closer parallel to the jocular bum nut, however, is the word cackleberry.
Common Australian slang for a girl includes "Sheila" (older, sometimes dated or slightly derogatory), "chick," or just using general terms like "mate," "gal," or "lass," with context and tone being important, but "girl" is still widely used; some slang, like "moll," can refer to a girlfriend or a promiscuous woman, while "bogan" describes an unsophisticated person.
In Australian English the word dunny is used informally for toilet. It derives from the British dialect word dunnekin meaning 'privy' (from dung 'excrement' and ken 'house'). It was originally used in Australian English, from the 1930s, to refer to an unsewered outside toilet.
In Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay it is banana, with the same spelling as English. In Spain, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Equatorial Guinea, it is plátano.
Guineos (pronounced [ɡiˈneos]) usually refers to an unripe banana. The term guineo is sometimes used in reference to its ripened counterpart: the yellow (ripened) banana. The word guineo comes from Guinea, a country in West Africa, as it is one of the places from which bananas originate.
Plátano means banana, and where it is consumed, plátano macho means plantain. The name banana or banano is used in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Panamá, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to talk about the same fruit we call banana in English.