Cobber! Classic Aussie words we still use?

[Kym]

A lot of classic Aussie language has passed into dis-use.

But! What words do you still use that are classic Aussie words or phrases?

I sometimes use Furphy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furphy)

I don't use bonzer, cobber, ripper.

So... Maaaate ... tell us what words you still use? :australia:

[Nanny]

Mate, G'Day and Bloody nora

[Tannin]

Crikey! What a bloody riper of a thread! Fair dinkum, it's a beauty!

[jim]

What words do you still use that are classic Aussie words or phrases?

...





So... Maaaate ... tell us what words you still use? :australia:

None whatsoever you uncouth person.

[farmer_rob]

I have a furphy, but no longer use it. (except in conversation.)

[geoffsta]

Woke up this morning next to the "old chook" bustin for a "snakes hiss", let rip with a bit of "wind in the willows". Then walked in the "orifice" Turned on the "poota" and thought I'd pop in for a "captain cook" at this "ball biter" of a thread.
It's "jack" outside with ice on the "screen", and the grass is like "coco pops". It's a "grouse" looking morning, I might "snatch" up the "clicker" and take a few "picks"

[ricktas]

I use mate occasionally, generally only with mates, I don't tend to call people I don't know mate, like some do. I also hate being called 'darl', which many of the older country women tend to like to do..Urhhg!

She'll be right

I also use the Tasmanian only one "Rum'un". Calling someone a Rum'un is to call them stupid, idiot..etc in a lighthearted way.

[JohnRA]

It's a dying art. The only time I might slip back into some of the old lingo is when I'm talking to a few old mates around my vintage.
How much Aussie slang was lost when we switched to decimal currency for instance ?
Gone .... or just about gone, are .... tanner, bob. zac, trey, quid, brick etc.
I think we are poorer for it's demise, but I suppose it is also a matter of progress.

[Wayne]

I use mate, great for anyone and everyone esp when you forget their name.

[peterb666]

Struth
'Owyagoing
She'll be right
Flabberghasting (Not really an Australian word but a relatively obscure slang word for astonishing, used in one of the Smiley movies from the 1950s)
Furphy
Bloody
Bastard as a term of endearment


I dislike 'mate' due to the politicising of the word which has greatly devalued it. About the only time I use it is in the phrase "Bloody, bonza, beauty, mate"

[peterb666]

I use mate, great for anyone and everyone esp when you forget their name.

There are better choices...

possum
cupcake
numbat
sport
darling

The beauty of these is that you can also use them when you don't forget names or have a mental block. No one is the wiser (well not that they will admit).

[rookie]

I wish someone would blowup the word GUYS.(I cringe every time I hear it).Sorry if off topic.

[ameerat42]

Having a lend of..., and if anybody every says "Having a loan of...", well, they should be spiflicated.

[BecM]

Strike a light. Use it all the time :)

[WhoDo]

G'day, mate. I still listen to furphies, although I don't usually swaller 'em. I enjoy a good barbie with a few chinas, especially if it's a fair dinkum Aussie-style do with bangers instead of prawns or chook. I like to wash the tucker down with some suds, too, but these days I go easy on the number of schooners I'll gargle. Me and the missus usually pull up stumps early, as well. We're no spring chickens any more. I don't go to the boozer much any more; too many winos. I've had a cracker of a life, and I hope the lucky country'll put up with us for a good while longer yet. Our kiddies have kiddies so we want time to watch the ankle-biters grow some. Good onya for bringin' back the lingo, Kym. The tele is likely gonna cause it to turn up its toes and fall off the twig altogether if we don't mind our p's and q's. :th3:

[peterb666]

Stuth Waz, you cannot manage 2 words without an ockerism.

[WhoDo]

Stuth Waz, you cannot manage 2 words without an ockerism.
:lol: Strike me lucky, or pink, Pete, yer on the dough! Yeah, since I discovered Hogan on Willisee it's given me a whole new butchers at the lingo we were losin'. :lol:

[ricktas]

Bringing back a few memories:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97YnGQE1q6M

[Scotty72]

Apart from G'day, I would barely use any unless I am deliberately doing what our pollies (is that one) tend to do with annoying frequency, trying to prove my Australian-ness.

Aussie slang is a bit like Fosters beer: only ever drunk when overseas (or in the company of visitors from overseas) when you are trying to appear different.

Also, much of what we embrace as Australian slang (or reject as 'Americanisms') are nothing of the sort.

I'm not sure many Englishmen wander around greeting each other wearing bowler hats and a 'hullo chaps' so, I don't think it is necessary for us to slink around in rabbit pelt hats bidding each other, 'G'Day, cobber.'

Also, I was recently at the outback show (next to Wet 'n' Wild on the Gold Coast): talk about cringe worthy. I'm sure the tourists from China sitting beside us went home thinking all we ever said was, "struth, bloody, corker & cobber." whilst riding our horses, desperately searching for a war to go fight.

Scotty

[geoffsta]

Bringing back a few memories:


Gee, they have bleeped a bit out of that????? Nothing that the bleeped out would have been too offensive.:(
Anyway I'm going down to the bakery for a "dogs eye" and a "snot block"

[ving]

unlike you lot, I don not torture the queens english!


you know I was saying crickey well before steve irwin and when he died i resented feeling guilty for saying it. it was a weird time... or maybe i am just a weird person :p

[peterb666]

:lol: Strike me lucky, or pink, Pete, yer on the dough! Yeah, since I discovered Hogan on Willisee it's given me a whole new butchers at the lingo we were losin'. :lol:

Blimey cobber, words fly out of you like blowies from a dead dingo's carcass.

[ApolloLXII]

"Drongo" - mainly because there seems to be a fair few of them about. Perhaps the reason behind the dwindling use of Aussie lingo is because it's just "not cool" for some people to use it. A lot of it has become replaced with "Americanisms", particularly among today's youth who would rather use those than "old fogies" language.

[WhoDo]

Blimey cobber, words fly out of you like blowies from a dead dingo's carcass.

Sorry, mate. I was in the dunny and it was either wizz or squizz! :lol:

[Duane Pipe]

Chonks, Who can remember using that word and what it means.

[WhoDo]

Chonks, Who can remember using that word and what it means.
You'd be floggin' a dead horse with me on that one, mate! Maybe some of yer fellow Mex's would have a clue. :confused013

[Tommo1965]

im a pom thats been here for 22 years of my 45 total on the planet....im very near to being a half Aussie.....I still have a london accent that been watered down with the aussie vernacular...I use the following phrases to make my self understood....LMAO

shell be right
no worries
am I in yer road
Dinkum..{ not very often using fair }
cobber
crikey mate
mate...to women and blokes
blokes
Sheila { casue the missus hates it :th3: }

.but I still use ....sky for pocket...boat for face ..whistle for suit... etc etc, old habits die hard:D

[wheellathe]

Sell the sheep station Kym, isn this page ear for cameras and fillum and stuff

[Tannin]

I also use the Tasmanian only one "Rum'un". Calling someone a Rum'un is to call them stupid, idiot..etc in a lighthearted way.

My parents use that expression all the time. :) But then, that might just be because they come from Devonport and Sheffield! But I'm surprised to hear someone of your generation using it - my folks are 80-odd.

[Duane Pipe]

You'd be floggin' a dead horse with me on that one, mate! Maybe some of yer fellow Mex's would have a clue. :confused013

Gday Wazz Chonks is what we used to call Lollies, Hmm maybe its just a word that the locals used 40 years ago:confused013
Have any other AP members heard of it

[Bear Dale]

Fair crack at the chicko roll mate!

[Duane Pipe]

How about Kevin Rudd's attempt at aussie slang (Fair shake of the sauce bottle mate) :lol: It should have been fair suck of the sauce bottle

[WhoDo]

I also use the Tasmanian only one "Rum'un". Calling someone a Rum'un is to call them stupid, idiot..etc in a lighthearted way.My parents use that expression all the time. :) But then, that might just be because they come from Devonport and Sheffield! But I'm surprised to hear someone of your generation using it - my folks are 80-odd.
Maybe it goes back to the Rum Corps who were sent out here to guard the convicts. They were paid in rum and apparently drank most of their wages which would make them stupid idiots, not necessarily in a nice way though.:D

[yummymummy]

Well, anyone I don't know is Old mate, you know like old mate down the road that let me onto his property to take photos.. i still say gday, fair dinkum, as low as a snakes belly, and as water tight as a ducks ar$e, all the fellas up at dad's pub are "bloke" cause I don't know them.. meet them and then from then on it's " howyagoinbloke" when I see them again. I guess I use aussie slang a lot more than I realise :confused013

[JM Tran]

Vietnam.

:D

[wanderer51]

Strewth (struth), crikey (long before I had even heard of Steve Irwin). G'day, mate, bloke. fair crack of the whip, stone the crows.
What really annoys me are terms such as guy, wildfire - when they really mean bushfire (even if it is out of control) and the (almost) epitome of Americanisation.....(note that there is no Z in that in accordance with our spelling rules!)..... the use of the letter Zee instead of the correct Zed. The other day while I was having a morning coffee, my wife was watching the Today show (!) when one of the hosts (an Aussie) used the term 'Zeebra'. Being early morning and I hadn't finished my first caffeine hit, so I was not in a 'generous' mood, I sent of a rather terse email to the station pointing out that if the host wished to use American words then perhaps he should consider moving to the US but that failing that suggestion could he please use the correct term of 'Zebra' next time...needless to say I did not get a reply! The use of the letter 'Zee' seems to be becoming more prevalent...I caught a bloke (mid 20s') at work a few months ago spelling a word (can't remember what it was now) and using the letter 'Zee'. When I asked why he used that instead of 'Zed', he said everyone uses it! (even though he confessed that in school he learnt that the last letter of the alphabet was pronounced 'Zed'!). This makes me think that once the younger generation get to be the 'oldies' that the Americanisation of Australia will be complete!
I have also sent numerous emails to Sky News for their consistent use of the terms 'wildfire', 'hurricane' (when they really meant Tropical Cyclone (when referring to these storms effecting Australia)) and 'shopping malls'....maybe things have changed, but I was under the impression that a group of shops in Australia was called a shopping centre and not a shopping mall.
Ahhh.....maybe there is no future of pride in being an Aussie.....or maybe I am just becoming a grumpy old man! :confused013

[ameerat42]

Have you been reading my book?:D

[geoffsta]

The one I hate the most is "Matey". I don't mind Mate, buddy or pal, but matey sounds like someone being sarcastic.

[Michaela]

the (almost) epitome of Americanisation.....(note that there is no Z in that in accordance with our spelling rules!)..... the use of the letter Zee instead of the correct Zed.

Despite coming to Australia at the age of 3 and being taught at school to use "zed", I'm afraid the Australian school system was no match for ... Sesame Street!!! :D I remember loving that show and faithfully imitating everything they said, and to this day I still say "zee"! Sorry! :rolleyes: :p

[ricstew]

Jeez ya all are talkin' like Orstraalians......fair suck of the sav.