This week's blog is cactus, that is, ruined, as in we aren't going anywhere, the engine's cactus. Someone in trouble is said to be in the cactus. No doubt referring to the dreaded prickly pear which once covered so much of the country, at least, before being eaten holus bolus by the cacto, the wondrous Cactoblastis cactorum moth which was introduced as a biological control. Cactus got us thinking about other slang words for broken or ruined, so we dipped into our database and found a lot of examples from Australian English. Boonted means messed up or broken, while clapped-out can mean exhausted and weary or broken and in a state of disrepair.  Had the chad and had the bomb are great Aussie ways of saying something is ruined, wrecked or useless. Kaput, which originates from German is a well-known way of saying something is broken. Onkus means no good, hopeless, crap, broken or out of order. So it covers a lot of ground linguistically. Unfortunately, this old Aussie slang dating from the 1910s is dying out, or likely already dead. Its origin is unknown but it is also used in New Zealand, but in the completely opposite sense, meaning good. Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.  

A bunyip is a mythical Australian beast of amphibious nature that inhabits rivers and deep, dark pools, retreating to underwater caverns known as bunyip holes. They are so shy and stealthy that one has never yet been caught. The word for this animal is from the Aboriginal language Wembawemba of Victoria and Southern NSW. The bunyip is not to be confused with the yowie, another mythical beast akin to a yeti or sasquatch. The word comes from the Aboriginal language Yuwaalarraay, from up Lightning Ridge way. Another fantastic beast is the triantiwontigongolope. A mythical insect beastie, the triantiwontigongolope is sometimes portrayed as a dreadfully dangerous creature like the bunyip in order to frighten children or naive city folk visiting the bush. As if Australia's many poisonous snakes and spiders aren't already enough to scare the wary traveller, C.J. Dennis introduced the triantiwontigongolope in a poem. Not to be confused with the triantelope, which is the common huntsman spider. If you're more afraid of the upper classes than mythical creatures be sure to read about the bunyip aristocracy. This derogatory name is given to Australians who consider themselves superior to others in wealth or status. The description was coined by Daniel Deniehy, a New South Wales MP in the 1800s in response to attempts to establish a colonial aristocracy.   Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.

This week's Aussie slang Word of the Week is essential to the functioning of Australian society. Hospo is short for hospitality, the industry that employs millions of people in cafes, hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions, all of which have done it tough over the last year. This blog is dedicated to you, the hard-working hospo staff across the country.  What else to talk about when writing about the hospitality industry other than Australia's favourite beverage: coffee. Served up by your local barista, coffee is as essential to the body as petrol is for your car. We've all heard of a cap, but some other ingenious slang names for your morning brew include the pipe-opener and the heart-starter, which is a strong coffee drank early in the day to help cure a hangover.  Do you drink a 1SM or a 2SM? No, these aren't radio stations but Sydney slang for a coffee (or tea) made with one sugar and milk, and two sugars and milk respectively.  Getting in to specialised coffees, a Bogan juice is another name for an iced coffee while a Baptist boilermaker consists of black coffee mixed with soda water. Not sure about that! Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.

This week we are cruising around the traps. Relax, we haven't set an ambush for you, rather, the traps refer to any place you frequent, as in I've seen him around the traps. Aussie slang since the 1930s, the traps originally referred to a route along which a person had laid traps which they then habitually visited to collect the game that had been caught.  To go round the traps means to visit the places where people gather and talk in the hope of getting information, or more specifically, gossip.  Australian English features a plethora of place related slang words. A hang, short for hang-out, is a place you frequent. Unlike the much-frequented traps and hangs, the arse end of the world is a thoroughly hideous place that you don't want to visit often. Even worse is the arse end of the universe. You're unlikely to visit Bullamakanka either, because it's an imaginary remote town.  And have you ever visited kickastickalong? If not, read all about the eponymous Australia town in our blog.  Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.

This week we want you to give our blog a fair crack of the whip as we explore fairness and it's usage in Australian English.  Aussie slang is full of unique and entertaining ways to ask for fair treatment. To say you want a fair crack of the whip is to appeal for fairness. The oft heard, fair go is another classic Aussie demand for a fair or reasonable opportunity. Likewise, fair suck of the sav is classic Australiana meaning the same thing.  Once you've been given a fair go, you need to hop in for your chop, in other words, step up and take your fair share. A person who embodies the spirit of fairness is known as a battler: a decent and fair person who struggles continually and persistently against heavy odds. You might notice a glaring omission from this blog, but never fear, we wrote about quintessentially Aussie phrase fair dinkum back in 2019.  Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.

Brr. With winter frosting up the windows, we decided it was time to wrap up for a doona day and explore some chilly slang.  No one wants to go outside during winter. That's why the doona day exists, a kind of sanctioned sickie or mental health day in which you slop about the house in pyjamas and snuggle up on the couch with your doona. Sounds perfect.  You might need an extra blanket when the lazy wind is blowing, that's a bitterly cold wind, too lazy to go around you so it cuts through you instead. If the wind keeps blowing you might be in for a one-dog night. That is, a reasonably cold night on the dog scale that runs from one dog to five. This piece of slang arose from the bushmen's practise of sleeping with their dogs. The colder the night the more dogs needed to stay warm. Unless you're a professional dog walker, I hope you never encounter a five-dog night! Wrap up and stay warm, lest you catch the dreaded lurgy! Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.

Sometimes an advertisement or other seemingly innocuous jingle worms its way not just into our ears but into our culture. Not happy, Jan is one such phrase.  Originally popularised by an infamous and much parodied Yellow Pages TV commercial, not happy, Jan has remained an Australian catchphrase since first airing in 2000. In the advert, a manager realises that her staff member 'Jan' has neglected to place an ad in time, causing her to express her irritation by yelling not happy, Jan! out a window. Jan lives on even if we no longer flick through the Yellow Pages.  Rewatching the advert inspired us to look for other words and phrases that express annoyance and irritation. After sieving through many, many swear words, we found two.  Lemony means annoyed, as in, I got lemony at the kid. This piece of Aussie slang dates back to the 1940s. Formerly common, it is now scarce, perhaps because it left a bitter taste in the mouth (yes, I went there). The second piece of slang is cheesed off, meaning irritated or annoyed. How good is cheesed off? It's the perfect way for fed up people to express their displeasure without resorting to stronger language.  To see which Aussie catchphrases have stood the test of time, check out our catchphrases and memes blog.  Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here

This week we have stirred up a cocktail of drinking related slang words.  Lets start at the beginning of a typical Aussie night out. Pres refers to a gathering at a private home before a social event elsewhere, usually to drink alcohol, or the drinks consumed at such a gathering. Pres often features sophisticated beverages such as the chateau cardboard, another name for cask wine, or the goon sack as it is affectionately known.  To get in to all the slang that flows from the goon sack could take up a month of blogs, but some of our favourites include the dapto briefcase: a cask of cheap wine, named after Dapto, a small township in eastern NSW, and the famous goon of fortune, a drinking game in which bladders of wine casks are hung from a rotating clothes hoist under which players are situated at intervals. The spinning of the hoist determining who drinks next. Don't worry, it isn't all wine casks hung on the washing line here at the Macquarie office. We encourage responsible drinking. Deso is a slang term for a designated driver.  You'll need a deso to get you to kick ons. You can probably guess that kick on is the opposite of pres in that it means to carry on a party or other festivites, usually late into the night, often to the point where regret begins sink in as the sun rises.  Alcohol related slang differs state by state. Take a deep dive into Aussie beer sizes to find out how each state likes to drink. And yes, we have also waded in (beer soaked of course) into the debate on whether it's spelt skol or scull.  Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.  

You've got two chances: Buckley's and none.  This famous phrase likely refers to William Buckley, a convict with an incredible story. Buckley's chance means you've got no chance at all, which is a little odd, considering Buckley managed to elude colonial authorities for over 30 years by escaping into the Australian bush where he lived with Indigenous people until giving himself up.  The irony of this phrase emerging from Buckley's story feels very modern and inspired us to look for other chance related slang words.  It turns out there are levels of chance. A nonstarter is something which has no chance of success, whereas an open go is a free chance, an unhindered opportunity. Punt is a great Aussie slang word that simply means to take a chance, especially in a gambling context. You might take a punt on a toss-up, which is an even chance, as in the election was a toss-up.   While dredging the silty river of the Macquarie database we also found crool, as in he crooled his chance. Meaning to ruin or spoil, crool is basically obsolete, though the purposeful misspelling of cruel feels like a perfect fit for our meme-ruled online world.  Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.

Yes, we really do love insults here at the Macquarie Dictionary. So much so that we are serving up a second round of insults after last week's look at boofheads. This time we're looking at drongos. A drongo is a slow-witted or stupid person: a fool. This great Australian insult was originally an RAAF term for a raw recruit. It first appeared in the early 1940s, but its origin reaches back to the name of the racehorse Drongo, who ran around in the early 1920s. No Phar lap, Drongo was famed for its poor form, never winning a race, and was used as a character in the political cartoons of Sammy Wells that appeared in the Melbourne Herald. Some have suggested that the use of drongo as an insult refers to the spangled drongo, a tropical bird of north-east Australia, but there doesn't appear to be any obvious connection, so we'll stick with the horse story, which is a better yarn anyway.  Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.

Insults are a speciality here at the Macquarie Dictionary. We have access to hundreds of them from the familiar to the obscure. This week boofhead caught our eye. How couldn't it? A boofhead is a person with a large head. That's perhaps the kindest definition of boofhead. It is also a word for an idiot: a stupid person with an oversized head.  This definition of boofhead was popularised by the cartoon character Boofhead who appeared in the Sydney Daily Mirror from 1941. The most likely origin is that it is a variant of the earlier bufflehead, which had the same meaning, but which literally meant 'buffalo head.' Naturally, anyone with a boofhead is described as boofheaded.  The boofhead turtle, a small brown-shelled turtle found in an area extending from the Fitzroy River in Queensland to the Daly River in the NT, is unrelated to human boofheads.   Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.

This week's word of the week is not for the ATO. Cashie is slang for a cash in hand job. Usually, an employer slips you a few notes at the end of the day, off the books to avoid paying tax.  With the Federal Budget handed down on 11 May, we thought we would tally up some other economic slang words. It isn't just the government that taxes you. Among schoolkids, tax is a levy imposed by a friend on some item you probably won't mind sharing. Think of that friend who implements the chip tax or the chocolate tax. Tax is also interchangeable with steal, as in, he taxed my ruler. Seems not much changes when you leave school.  There are plenty of slang words for money, such as big bickies and big bucks. If your wallet is empty you might put the bite on someone, that is, borrow money from them. If you lost all your money gambling, then you might find yourself betting with rubber bands. In other words, making a desperate final bet with the very last of your money after a day of nothing but losses. The rubber bands are the ones that held your massive wad of money at the beginning of the day. Let's hope this isn't the Treasurer's approach to the budget.  If you're confused by government and media jargon, we've got you covered for the Federal Budget with our budget words blog.   Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.