I had too much time on my hands on the long flight from Sydney to Honolulu, so I made a little game for you to play. Below is a list giving some examples of how Australians shorten most of their words to end with "ee" and the rest with "o". If you also have too much time on your hands, try and guess what the words mean, and then move your mouse over the word (DON'T CLICK!) to see the answer. Also, one of the words in this list is a fake! Post a comment if you think you can guess which one Australians don't actually use, and we'll post the correct answer in a week. Fun fun fun.
| Posi | Get into a comfortable posi for this game. |
| Townie | Most of our photos notwithstanding, we were really townies while in Australia. |
| Uni | In Canberra, we both spent a lot of time at our local uni. |
| Greenie | Peter Garrett, the lead singer of Midnight Oil, is a greenie. |
| Daggy | Your ugg boots are daggy. |
| Billy | Waltzing Matilda, waltzing matilda... And he sang as he watched and waited 'till his billy boiled... |
| Aussie | Aussie Aussie Aussie - Oy! Oy! Oy! |
| Footy | The cheer above would come in handy while watching some international footy. |
| Brekkie | Do you like beetroot with your brekkie? |
| Mozzie | There were too many mozzies in our Melbourne apartment. |
| Barbie | The best place for a barbie is at the beach. |
| Beanie | Believe it or not, we went to a beanie festival in Alice Springs. |
| Salvo, Servo | The salvo and the servo serve quite different functions in society. |
| Pollie | Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett recently became a pollie. |
| Pokie | Don't give all your money to a pokie machine. |
| Telly | Neighbours is the best show on Aussie telly. |
| Relo | While in Sydney, we visited Anatole's relos. |
| Tassie | Tassie has a lot of beautiful forests. |
| Soapie | Neighbours is a soapie. |
| Postie | The recent Australian Idol winner was a postie. |
| Arvo | It's going to take you the rest of this arvo to finish this game. |
| Dodgy | The relationship between Susan (a nice teacher) and Tom (a priest) on Neighbours is pretty dodgy. |
| Bodgy | I hate when my beetroot gets bodgy. |
| Macca's | Macca's Oz Burger comes with beetroot. |
| Fossie's | I didn't drink any Fossie's in Australia. |
| Wheelie Bin | Rubbish goes in wheelie bins. |
| Combie | A lot of backpackers travel around Australia in combies. |
| Kindie | Little kids go to kindie. |
| Woolie's, Toastie, Lollie, Throatie, Hot Chockie | At Woolie's, you can buy lollies, cough lollies (such as Throaties), ingredients for toasties, and some hot chockie powder. |
| Bikie, Boatie | Don't confuse a bikie with a boatie. |
| Lurgy | When you've got a lurgy, you can watch a lot of Neighbours. |
| Argy-bargy | According to Peter Garrett, he knew it would cause a lot of argy-bargy when he became a pollie. |
| Pommie | Despite (or perhaps because of) their key role in Australian history, Pommies sometimes get a bit of bad rap with today's Australians. |
| Longie | It got so cold in Canberra that we ended up wearing longies most of the time. |
| Muso | Did being a muso adequately prepare Peter Garrett for a life in politics? |
| Journo | There's nothing a journo likes more than a pollie-muso combo. |
| Googie egg | After eating so much beetroot, I'm full as a goog, a googie egg. |
| Matey | Good on ya matey! |
Did you know "lurgie" (or maybe "lurgy"?) comes from the old British radio comedy The Goon Show? There was an episode entitled "The Dreaded Lurgy" in which a horrible disease swept England... the Goon Show was almost completely unintelligible nonsense, but very funny (Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan are the most famous alumni), and it was a major inspiration for Monty Python. I'm amused to know it's common Aussie slang!
Posted by: Aven at September 20, 2004 12:41 AMGood to know since that was one of the more mysterious ones - not an obvious short form of anything! So, did you spot the fake word that Aussies don't actually use?
Posted by: Miriam at September 20, 2004 02:36 AMSeveral of those slang abbreviations are also used in G.B. e.g. on Coronation Street, a British soapie, not American (very different), Toyah goes to uni, very unusual for the working class Street. It caused a lot of argy-bargy in her house as now she had no time to make brekkie for her stepdad while he watched Neighbours. (true!)
Posted by: Maxine at September 20, 2004 04:46 AM