Down under a "barbie" is short for barbecue. There is actually a whole range of confusing terms you may encounter at an Australian barbecue. An "avo" is an avocado, a "chook" is a chicken, an "Esky" is a portable cooler, "snags" are sausages, "sunnies" are sunglasses and a "tinnie" is a can of beer.
Aussie Word of the Week
Unco or The Man from Unco means awkward or clumsy. Typically used by schoolkids, unco is a shortened version of uncoordinated. Aussie slang is chockers with great and hilarious terms for the uncoordinated among us. Captain coordination is - ironically - as clumsy as a duck in a ploughed paddock.
Spit The Dummy. Meaning: (Verb) To spit the dummy means to be very upset or disappointed by something. A common slang term in Australia.
Cocky may mean: boldly or brashly self-confident. Australian slang for cockatoo. Australian and New Zealand slang for farmer.
mug – friendly insult, gullible person; for example, "Garn, have a go, y' mug."
Yeet. A very strong word for yes.
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.
The Billy Lids (Australian slang for "kids")
1. to do a poop: I gotta goona. 2. gunna (pronounced 'goona') = manure: I stepped in dog gunna; That kid is in deep gunna.
Chewie: if someone asks you for some chewie, they're looking for a piece of chewing gum. Chuck a sickie: a worker who decides to take a sick day when they're actually in perfect health is chucking a sickie. Chuck a wobbly: this is Aussie speak for throwing a big tantrum.
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”.
Here are some Aussie slang words that you might not know. 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.
Mate. “Mate” is a popular word for friend. And while it's used in other English-speaking countries around the world, it has a special connection to Australia. In the past, mate has been used to address men, but it can be gender-neutral.
Most commonly, stunner is used to describe a person—often not to their face. So, someone who is particularly attractive would be a stunner: “I met this total stunner the other night,” for example.
Tinnies = Cans of Beer
But the Australian slang for beer is amber fluid. Some states call it a pint, and in others, it is a schooner. Stubby meaning?
Hug an Australian Day is an international holiday celebrated every year on April 26. The idea is really simple; share a hug with an Australian friend. A hug is a physical display of affection.
From the one-night standers to long-standing marriages, couples of all kinds sharing a pash on the street isn't an uncommon sight in Australia. Nearly two thirds (58%) of Australians think that kissing with tongues in public is totally fine, based on research we carried out that surveyed 2,000 Australians.
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”.
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.
One of the terms we had already collected – but not yet put into the dictionary – was “bum nut” for an egg.
Bloody has always been a very common part of Australian speech and has not been considered profane there for some time. The word was dubbed "the Australian adjective" by The Bulletin on 18 August 1894.