Blogs

The word eggcorn was coined in 2003 by British-American linguist, Geoffrey Pullum, born 1945, from such a substitution of eggcorn for acorn, taken as a type. 

Dinkum appears earliest in the phrase fair dinkum (1890 in Australia, but 1881 in Britain), and not as a separate word until 1905. It originates in the British dialects of Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, where it meant ‘work’, or ‘a due share of work’. So if you did your fair dinkum, it meant you did your fair share of … Read more

There are a lot of different meanings for the word go. At the moment of writing, there are 127 in the Macquarie Dictionary Online alone! But this week’s featured word is focused on the sense meaning ‘an attempt’. As in, “I’ll give anything a go.” This is a word used ubiquitously and unthinkingly by the … Read more

Here in Australia (and in most of the English-speaking world), there are two separate meanings for narc and nark. The former is an abbreviation of narcotics officer. And the latter meaning a police informer. While it is interesting that they both involve law enforcement, there is not necessarily a correlation between the two coinages. While … Read more

To pike is a colloquialism unique to Australia, meaning to ‘go quickly’. And a piker is the type of person who would opt out of an arrangement or challenge or not do their fair share. Often, at the last moment. There is a particular stigma associated with pikers, from people who are stood up at engagements … Read more

Some of the biggest debates in our fair nation revolve around different ways we refer to classic foods. Take, for example, the humble sausage sandwich, or sausage in bread, or sausage sizzle… To really rile a person up, you could refer to a potato cake as a potato scallop, or a potato fritter even. But that controversy is to remain unaddressed today. Another … Read more

In Newtown, Sydney, there is a sign near the train station that reads ‘the land of the Cadigal people of the Eora nation’. In Stanmore, Sydney, about 2km away, there is a sign that proclaims ‘the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation’. This is the same Indigenous group, so why are there … Read more

Here in Australia, we have always taken up words and expressions from other English-speaking parts of the world.

Beautiful words are in the eye of the beholder. We’ve taken some suggestions and put together a few more words that we think evoke a sense of loveliness either in the way they sound or the way they look, and sometimes in the definition. You can read our first list of beautiful words here, and … Read more

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 look at knock ’em down rains.