Boardies and rashies 'Boardies' are board shorts, which are quick-drying shorts that can be worn by all genders. Rash vests or 'rashies' are worn over your cossies.
Etymology. The term derives from the elasticated shorts worn by participants in the sport of boxing. Boxer briefs are also called "trunks" in the United Kingdom and Australia.
speedos – generic term for men's swimming briefs which originated in Australia, from the brand name (see Speedo). Known colloquially as sluggos, budgie smugglers.
In Australia and New Zealand, they are also commonly known as trackpants, trackies, tracky daks or joggers.
An Australian work costume
Queensland's colloquial term for the singlet, the “Jackie Howe”, takes its name from the shearer said to have bared his arms while setting new daily shearing records in 1892. In fact, it's more likely he wore an undershirt.
As the word's been used since the earliest Colonial settlements of Australia, many Aussies mistakenly believe the word is archaic and no-longer used. In actuality, it's simply slightly less understood then more generic forms of greeting (such as "mate"). " G'day, cobber ." "G'day, mate. How're ye doin'?"
The American accent is rhotic, so when a word is spelt with an "r," a "hard r" sound is used. When Americans apply their pronunciation to the Australian "no," it results in the phonetic spelling of "naur." (To an Australian, "naur" looks like it would be pronounced "naw.")
Budgie smugglers is the pre-eminent name for speedos, a close-fitting, nylon, legless swimming costume designed for men.
Flip-flops are also called thongs (sometimes pluggers) in Australia, jandals (originally a trademarked name derived from "Japanese sandals") in New Zealand, and slops or plakkies in South Africa and Zimbabwe. In the Philippines, they are called tsinelas.
WHY DO AUSSIES CALL THEM THONGS? The word THONG means restraint, referred to as the piece of rubber that is used to slide between the big and second toe to keep the soul of the sandal.
That's because we're using Australian English in this blog post, and 'pyjamas' is the correct spelling in Australia. It's also the standard spelling in most other English-speaking countries, including the UK.
Esky is a brand of portable coolers, originally Australian, derived from the word "Eskimo". The term "esky" is also commonly used in Australia to generically refer to portable coolers or ice boxes and is part of the Australian vernacular, in place of words like "cooler" or "cooler box" and the New Zealand "chilly bin".
Decoding Australia's colourful food slang. "I could eat the bum out of an elephant. Let's have some tucker." Translation: I'm really hungry.
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.
Ketchup is underrated. We call it tomato sauce in Australia.
A domestic fowl; a chicken. 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.
In Australia, the term "couch" is commonly used to refer to a long, upholstered seat designed for two or more people to sit on. However, some Australians may also use the term "sofa" or "lounge" interchangeably with "couch".
"A slide is a straight line. A Slippery Dip has bumps in it. A really big slide is called a Giant Slide, and a really big Slippery Dip is called a Big Dipper," the person wrote. "People who call an actual slide a slippery dip have hung upside down from the monkey bars for too long."
vacuum cleaning: I'll hoover the carpets before I do the groceries. Contributor's comments: "Hoover" often used for vacuuming in my youth, in Canberra and Sydney.
To chuck a wobbly is a variant of the Standard English idiom to throw a wobbly, where wobbly means 'a fit of temper or panic'. In Australian English chuck in the sense of 'throw' or 'stage' is used in other expressions with the same meaning, such as chuck a mental and chuck a mickey.
Looking at this, it seems there is no one reason why Australians love to abbreviate their words. It might be because it gives a sense of friendliness to modern speech, it might be because it's a habit that's been culturally carried since settlement, or it might simply be because it's fun.
While some Australian speakers would pronounce “no” as a diphthong, starting on “oh” as in dog and ending on “oo” as in put, others begin with an unstressed “a” (the sound at the end of the word “sofa”), then move to the “oh” and then “oo”.
Oi /ɔɪ/ is an interjection used in various varieties of the English language, particularly Australian English, British English, Indian English, Irish English, New Zealand English, and South African English, as well as non-English languages such as Chinese, Tagalog, Tamil, Hindi/Urdu, Japanese, and Portuguese to get the ...