You’re lower than a snake’s belly! If someone tosses this insult your way, they are calling you mean, despicable and contemptible. Gee, thanks. At the Macquarie Dictionary we are welled versed in Aussie insults. This isn’t the first time we have explored barbs on our blog. So strap yourselves in for another round of great Aussie insults.
Mongrel is a great Aussie insult that was formerly used in the United Kingdom but has now become extinct there. A mongrel is a detestable person. If a job is too difficult it’s a mongrel of a job.
A ratbag is a worthless, despicable person. This piece of slang was recorded as early as the 1890s but didn’t become common until the 1940s. If you think this blog is piss-weak then you think it’s shabby or substandard, as in, those ratbags at Macquarie wrote another piss-weak blog.
I have left off some of the more, ahem, colourful insults that feature in the Macquarie Dictionary, many of which have a taboo label. Believe me, there are a lot of them. Just to prove we aren’t that squeamish, I couldn’t resist including one very colourful Aussie insult: f*ckwit. This uniquely Aussie blend of f*ck and nitwit means an incredibly stupid person. It can also be used to mean a despicable or detestable person. Like wine, wool and vegemite, we have managed to export f*ckwit to the world but without the need for a free trade agreement.
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.
