Fashion! It never goes out of style, that's why this week's Word of the Week is the Darwin rig, more commonly known as a Territory rig. The rig is the peculiar formal dress used in the Top End by men. Essentially, as it is so hot in the Top End, there is no need for a jacket. Territorians replace the tie and collared shirt with an open-necked shirt, and swap out long trousers for shorts and long white socks. Thongs, stubbies and T-shirts are not required. Classy.  This blog has featured Aussie fashion words many times over the years. We have even written about underwear. We just can't help ourselves. Fashion even makes up one of the fifteen categories in our Word of the Year competition. In 2020, the words on the fashion longlist were quite different from the Darwin rig. The list included adaptive clothing, a type of clothing which has been designed to facilitate dressing for someone with a physical or intellectual disability; French tuck: a style of dressing in which the front portion of a shirt, T-shirt, etc., is tucked into the waistband of a skirt or trousers with the rest of the top hanging loose, and period underwear: underpants designed to absorb menstrual blood and prevent leakage, comprising multiple layers which act to wick moisture away from the body, with an impermeable outer layer. With 2021 well under way, we look forward to seeing what's fashionable in Aussie wardrobes this year.  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 buying tickets to the cow-pat lotto, a form of lottery in which a cow is placed in a pristine paddock which has been divided into squares which are numbered and raffled off. The winner is decided by the fall of the first cow-pat. While waiting for the plop to drop so to speak, we got thinking about other cow related slang words, and oh boy did we find a whole herd of them.  To chase up a cow is to find a dry spot outdoors, usually with sexual intentions. In contrast, calling someone a cow is to call them a contemptible person. In fact, calling someone a miserable cow has been part of Aussie slang since the 1890s! Cow confetti is a euphemism for bullshit, while in cricket a cow shot is a stroke made without style or discrimination. Overall, it seems that cows get a bad rap in Aussie slang. Even a fair cow was early twentieth century slang for something distinctly unpleasant. Now, let's check on that cow-pat, I've got my ticket ready. 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 closing up shop early on our suburban shopping strip and heading across the road to the bowlo for a few schooners and a game of lawn bowls. Chiefly an Eastern states word, bowlo is short for bowling club.  Aussies love pubs and clubs, and why not? You'll find just about everything you need at the local club: a feed, a drink, a meat raffle, and of course a ragtag cover band belting out 80s hits over a dodgy sound system. So what if the carpet is a bit sticky and has one of those patterns that is definitely hiding something, we still book our kid's birthday party at the RSL: the Returned and Services League club or rissole if you like. The RSL has a long history in Australia. First appearing in 1916 as the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia, the organisation grew out of the spirit of camaraderie and concern for the welfare of fellow servicemen during and after World War I. As with the RSL, many Aussie clubs are associated with societal groups, especially sports clubs. Leagues clubs are any of various clubs run by bodies associated within the Australian Rugby League competition, offering food, drinks, entertainment, and other services to members, such as funding junior teams. These are also a particularly fun place to be if your team has just won the Grand Final. Add to this a variety of clubs set up by the various immigrant communities who call Australia home, like the Polish Club in Sydney's inner west, and it's clear how much we love our clubs! 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.

Ho ho ho, this week we are gearing up to welcome a certain big man in a red suit. That's right, this week's Word – or should I say, person! – of the Week is Santa Claus. The Macquarie team have been especially good this year. We made lists of new words and checked them twice, many of them were naughty but a few were nice. One word was so nice we choose it as our Word of the Year.  With Santa Claus busy prepping his sleigh for the big night, we did some digging around our slang database and discovered that Old Father Christmas shares his name with a plant part. In New South Wales and Queensland, Santa Claus is a slang term for the fluffy airborne seed of various plants, such as the moth vine or Scotch thistle. Perhaps due to the way their white fluffiness resembles his beard, these seeds are called a Father Christmas in South Australia.  Less festive names for these fuffy seeds include a wish, a fairy, and a robber. Now, off to bed! 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.

'tis the season for holiday slang. This week's Word of the Week is Secret Santa. Taking place in offices and homes across the nation, Secret Santa is a ritual by which a group of people exchange gifts at Christmas, each person giving a present to one other randomly selected member of the group, the gifts being limited to a certain price. Also known as Kris Kringle, as in I don't know what to get Sharon for a Kris Kringle present, this traditional Christmas game is played with different rules from group to group. In most versions, you draw a name from a hat and buy a gift for one person only. In another version, you bring a – usually humourous – gift which goes in a big pile of presents. You then draw a number and pick presents in numerical order. Everyone except the person who goes first is allowed to steal a present from another, but no single present can be "stolen" more than once. Getting the good gift requires expert timing and a touch of bastardry. Which version of Secret Santa or Kris Kringle do you play? 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.

Are you a couple of lamingtons short of a CWA meeting? We hope not, because this ingenious phrase means stupid, as in lacking a full complement of intelligence. It's also a little sad, because who wants to attend a meeting that lacks delicious lamingtons? The phrase is part of a long line of short of phrases that speakers of Australian English use to insult each other.  Since the 19th century people who are 'not all there' have been described by phrases comparing them metaphorically to some aggregate which is lacking its full complement. One of the earliest examples of this is the Australian phrase a shingle short (of a roof, that is). This dates back to the 1840s. An early British example of similar age is a button short (of a coat). A similar notion is found in not the full quid. Generally things are a 'few' or 'couple' short, as in a few bricks short of a load or a couple of alps short of a range or a few sheep short of a paddock. For some reason, food metaphors are the most common, such as a few bites short of a bickie, or bangers short of a barbie, or sandwiches short of a picnic, or a few Tim Tams short of a packet. Or, in this case, your humble Macquarie blog writer might be a few sentences short of a 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.

Surf's up. Grab your board and catch the five o'clock wave, a fictitious wave that passes down the Murrumbidgee River in Wagga Wagga each day. The wave is supposedly created by the release of water from an upriver dam. The tale is told to unwary visitors. If you get your surfboard and hurry down to Wagga Beach you can catch the five o'clock wave. The five o'clock wave inspired us to look at other slang from the New South Wales Riverina. Want to go for a float? That's what a Wagga resident might ask when they want to grab their floaties and go for a ride on the Murrumbidgee River. When the people of Wagga are excited they are fizzin. For example, when I caught the five o'clock wave I was really fizzin. Ride the wave for long enough and it will carry you DT, that's downtown in Wagga-speak.  Once you're done with all the water sport you might head to the Old Vic for a schooner, that's Wagga slang for the pub. Explore more slang words from across Australian in our Australian Word Map. 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.

Ah, the smell of peak hour traffic, don't you just love it? Well, no, but while you're on the school run, you might find yourself surrounded by a fleet of Balmain bulldozers.  A Balmain bulldozer is a derogatory term for a city-only four-wheel drive. This is a vehicle owned by someone living in an urban area and rarely, if ever, used for off-road driving. On holiday, these vehicles stick to the highway and stay well away from outback dirt roads.  Balmain bulldozer is only one of a legion of names for these 4WDs. In Sydney alone they are known by the following: Balmoral bulldozer, Double Bay tractor, Mosman tractor, North Shore tank and Turramurra tractor. They are also commonly known as wanker tanks. In fact, just about every city in Australia has a slang name for these urban road warriors. The Melbourne equivalent is Toorak tractor, also known as a Toorak taxi. Perth has the Dalkeith tractor, Adelaide the Burnside bus, and Brisbane the Kenmore tractor. Basically, stick the name of an affluent suburb in front of any large vehicle and you have yourself a suitably snarky name.  Beep beep. Drive safe.  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 a piece of chargrilled Aussie slang we can't wait to slather in sauce and sink our teeth into. That's right, we're taking a bite out of the famous democracy sausage. Though it's not a Federal election year, we thought there was enough voting going on around our states and in a certain other country overseas to inspire us to fire up the barbecue. A democracy sausage is a sausage sandwich (or a sausage in bread, or a sausage sizzle...) which a voter can obtain at a polling booth on polling day. This patriotic sausage has become so embedded in Australian culture that on election day you can follow a live map of where voters are chowing down. Democracy sausage has cultural clout. It was the Australian National Dictionary's 2016 word of the year.  Perhaps even more famous than the democracy sausage is the cultural phenomenon of the sausage sizzle. Generally, a sausage sizzle is a barbecue at which only sausages are cooked, especially as a fundraising event. We welcomed these grand events back a couple of months ago after they were put on ice during lockdown.   With hot days returning, we look forward to towns and suburbs filled with the smell of the sausage sizzle.  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 blog was inspired by the blue swimmer, which as well as being a kind of crab turns out to be a slang name for a ten-dollar note. You might have been tapping your card more than handling notes lately, so here is a reminder of what it's like to handle cold hard cash. Australia's colourful bank notes are known by many colloquial names. The twenty-dollar note is referred to as a lobster, while the fifty-dollar note is called a pineapple, and don't we all want to get our hands on a few jolly green giants, that is, hundred-dollar notes? And what about the dozens of other slang terms relating to money. Well, are you cashed-up and spending your chaff like it's water? Perhaps your dosh is running low and you've been left counting chickenfeed? Are you a soft touch, that is, a generous soul who readily lends money, or are you a stingy miser? Hopefully you aren't broke to the wide: bankrupt, or spending funny money, that is, money made by dubious or dishonest means. In fact, there are so many slang words relating to money that we can't possibly recount them all here. See you on pay day. 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.

We've got a sugar rush of Aussie slang for you to chew on, so sit down and unwrap this week's Word of the Week. A lolly is a sweet or piece of confectionery. Particular to Australia and New Zealand, lolly has been part of Aussie slang since the 1850s. A conversation lolly is a sugary lolly with a conversational, often romantic, sentiment impressed into it. These have been part of the Aussie diet since the 1890s. Lolly water is a carbonated soft drink and sometimes used to refer to cordial. If this blog is getting too sickly sweet for you, good news, there are a few non-sugar related uses of lolly in Aussie slang. Lolly can mean money or dosh, as in I'm running out of lolly. It can also refer to your head: to do your lolly is to lose your temper.  Lolly legs can be either long, skinny legs, or, a tall, lanky person with long legs, while lolly bags is a synonym for speedos. We'll leave that one up to your imagination. 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 think that merino woollen jumper you’re wearing just came to you beautiful and soft. No! You are wearing that jumper thanks to the work of a ringer! A ringer is the fastest shearer in a shearing shed. Recorded since the 1870s, the word comes from an earlier, now obsolete, sense, where a ringer was any person or thing that was superlatively good.  A snagger is the opposite of a ringer: a shearer who works roughly or inexpertly. I reckon we have probably all had our hair cut by a snagger at some point.   The meaning of ringer has morphed and changed as so many other slang words do. One meaning in use since the 1930s is found in sport, where a ringer is an athlete or horse entered in a competition under false representations as to their identity or ability. Just imagine if your local soccer team fielded Aussie legend Tim Cahill upfront. Ringer, as in dead ringer or dead ring, is a person or thing that closely resembles another. Let's hope the ringer running on for the opposition is a dead ringer for Tim Cahill and not the real player. 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.