"Barbie" is Australian slang for barbecue and the phrase "slip a shrimp on the barbie" often evokes images of a fun social gathering under the sun.
'BBQ' or 'barbie' is short for barbecue, and refers to both the cooking appliance (usually either gas-fuelled or charcoal) and the event itself. This means that you can 'go to a barbie' where someone might 'slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for ya' — a saying made famous by this classic 1982 Australian Tourism ad.
The Australian term for braai is barbie, short for barbecue.
Barbie. “Barbie” is a short form of barbeque. In Australian English, “-ie” is also added to lots of abbreviated words. The word “selfie” is a good example of this; it was coined by an Australian man in 2002! How to use it: We're having a barbie tomorrow – do you want to come?
Tucker is a word that Australians use for food. You will hear this word used a lot in more in country towns compared to the city. “I'm really hungry, I can't wait to get some tucker.”
Chook comes from British dialect chuck(y) 'a chicken; a fowl' which is a variant of chick. Chook is the common term for the live bird, although chook raffles, held in Australian clubs and pubs, have ready-to-cook chooks as prizes.
If you're feeling unwell, you could say you are crook. If someone is angry, you could say they've 'gone crook'. Crook can also be used to describe a criminal.
To carry a swag; to travel the road. A matilda is a swag, the roll or bundle of possessions carried by an itinerant worker or swagman.
Also in Australia, the word bloody is frequently used as a verbal hyphen, or infix, correctly called tmesis as in "fanbloodytastic". In the 1940s an Australian divorce court judge held that "the word bloody is so common in modern parlance that it is not regarded as swearing".
The harsh environment in which convicts and new settlers found themselves meant that men and women closely relied on each other for all sorts of help. In Australia, a 'mate' is more than just a friend and is a term that implies a sense of shared experience, mutual respect and unconditional assistance.
Why do Australians call sausages snags? The Australian National Dictionary Centre suggests. that snag as slang for "sausage" most likely derives. from the earlier British slang for "light meal", although it. makes no comment on how it came to be specifically.
Australian and New Zealand English uses "chips" both for what North Americans call french fries and for what Britons call crisps. When confusion would occur between the two meanings, "hot chips" and "cold chips" are used.
Contributor's comments: [NSW Informant] We called doughies 'doughnuts'. A straight-line version of this was always called 'laying down rubber' or a 'burnout'. Contributor's comments: "Doughies" is also used in Melbourne.
"Barbie" is Australian slang for barbecue and the phrase "slip a shrimp on the barbie" often evokes images of a fun social gathering under the sun. Australians, however, invariably use the word prawn rather than shrimp.
In NSW pram and stroller are frequently interchangeable. Contributor's comments: [Sydney informant] A stroller is for a young kid to "sit" in and be pushed, it could also be called a pram. A pram is for "laying" a baby in and has a hood, it could never be called a stroller.
Crikey. Some may argue that this isn't a swear word, but it's an important English word to recognized nevertheless. Crikey is often used to show astonishment and surprise, similar to the way the word 'Christ!' is used.
Strewth/Struth
This one was originally a British contraction of the phrase "God's truth", but the Australian's have made it their own.
When Aus or Aussie, the short form for an Australian, is pronounced for fun with a hissing sound at the end, it sounds as though the word being pronounced has the spelling Oz. Hence Australia in informal language is referred to as Oz.
The billy is an Australian term for a metal container used for boiling water, making tea or cooking over a fire.
Let's start with the most common, most well-known, and most quintessentially Australian slang term for girls: Sheila. While everywhere else in the English-speaking world, Sheila is a specific person's name, in Australia it can be used to refer to any woman or girl.
jumbuck. Jumbuck is an Australian word for a 'sheep'. It is best known from Banjo Paterson's use of it in Waltzing Matilda.
For instance, the Jim-brits or Jimmy Britts, shortened to “the jimmies,” is Australian rhyming slang for diarrhoea; “Jimmy” (or “Jimmy Grant”) is an immigrant, so not only is this a deft expression, it is also a neat insult of the Australians' traditional enemy.
"Knackers" is also a British/Australasian vulgar slang for testes, although this usage may be derived from nakers – small medieval kettle drums which were typically played in pairs suspended from a belt around the waist.
Australians typically say "sorry" as "sorry" itself, without any significant variation in slang.