Australians add new words to dictionary

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | January 10, 2008 | Nick Squires

[Stoat]

Australians add new words to dictionary

By Nick Squires In Sydney
 

Last Updated: 1:20pm GMT 10/01/2008

 

 

 

They gave the world budgie smugglers, sanger, arvo and barbie*, but Australians have shown themselves to be endlessly inventive, with a new collection of words and phrases added to the rich repository of Strine.

• The country’s biggest online dictionary, Macquarie, has included the 85 words or phrases in its latest online edition and wants Australians to vote for the one they consider most influential or apposite.

  	Toad juice anyone?

  They are grouped in 17 categories, from business to travel, and include ‘toad juice’ - a foul-smelling liquid fertiliser produced from pulverizing cane toads, pests which are devastating native wildlife as they hop their way across the continent’s tropical north.
  
  It is said to be especially good on banana and papaya trees.
  
  Many of the new words invented, or adopted, by Australians reflect a growing concern for the environment.
  
  The ‘green shoe brigade’ describes people who are profiting from dubious practices conducted in the name of caring for the environment - an adaptation of ‘white shoe brigade’, unscrupulous developers who encased much of Queensland’s coast in concrete in the 1980s.

  ‘Climate canary’ is a geographical feature, plant or animal species pointing to climate change.

  Some of the new terms come from New Zealand. Kiwis have taken to jokingly calling their capital, Wellington, ‘Helengrad’ because of the iron grip exerted by the government of prime minister Helen Clark.

  Many of the words were first formulated in the United States, but have been enthusiastically adopted by Australians, including ‘tanorexia’ – the obsessive cultivating of a suntan – and ‘salad dodger’, an obese person.

  A tattoo just above the buttocks is referred to as a pair of ‘arse antlers’ - "having a central section and curving extensions on each side” - while ‘manscaping’ is the removal of men’s body hair for aesthetic reasons.

  A person trying to juggle personal debt is a ‘credit card tart’, shifting loans around from one card to pay for another.

  Other nominations for the online Macquarie Dictionary include ‘infomania’, for those who constantly put aside the job at hand to concentrate on incoming email and text messages.

  ‘Password fatigue’ is frustration at having too many passwords to remember.

  But overcoming it brings the danger of ‘data smog’ - "electronic information as by emails, internet searches, etc., which, by its volume, impairs performance and increases stress."

  ‘Slummy mummies’ are mothers of young children who have abandoned all care for their personal appearance, as opposed to immaculately-groomed yummy mummies.

  “One of my personal favourites is ‘boomeritis’, which describes the sports-related injuries suffered by baby boomers as they keep playing sports well into old age,” said Susan Butler, the dictionary's publisher.

  “We invite the public to vote on their favourite word or phrase because it gives us some idea of what they consider the most inventive or significant or humorous addition to the language.

  “Last year’s winner was muffin top [the band of skin sagging over a too-tight pair of trousers], which was an Australian coinage that became big in America.”

  Voting for a favourite word on macquariedictionary.com.au will close on January 31, with the “word of the year” announced in early February.

  * swimming trunks, sausage, afternoon and barbecue

[Stoat]

A salad dodger with man flu Aussie dictionary - Telegraph

A salad dodger with man flu: Aussie dictionary

By Nick Squires In Sydney
 

Last Updated: 1:20pm GMT 10/01/2008

 

 

New words adopted by the Macquarie Dictionary

• credit card tart noun Colloquial. A credit-card holder who moves from provider to provider, transferring a loan from one account to another at a similar low rate of interest when the agreed period of the first account is about to expire.

  Also, card tart, rate tart.

  man flu noun Colloquial (humorous). A minor cold contracted by a man who proceeds to exaggerate the symptoms enormously.

  salad dodger noun Colloquial (derogatory). An overweight person.

  tart fuel noun Colloquial. Wine coolers and alcopops, viewed by men as deceptively alcoholic drinks that will lower a woman's resistance to sexual advances.

  green shoe brigade noun Colloquial. The group of people who stand to profit from dubious practices conducted in the name of environmental protection. [green (environmentally aware) + (white) shoe brigade]

  toad juice noun Liquid fertiliser produced from pulverised cane toads.

  arse antlers plural noun Colloquial. A tattoo just above the buttocks, having a central section and curving extensions on each side.

  butt bra noun Colloquial. A garment worn as a support for the buttocks. [butt + bra]

  boomeritis noun (humorous). The range of sports-related injuries incurred by baby boomers as they pursue health and physical fitness programs into their old age, such as bursitis, tendonitis, sprains, strains and stress fractures. [(baby) boomer + -itis]

  Helengrad noun NZ Colloquial (humorous). Wellington, seen as controlled by the government of Prime Minister Helen Clark. [Helen Clark + -grad common Russian ending meaning `town']

  kipper noun Colloquial. An adult child still living in the home of his or her parents, often as a result of pressure in the housing market. [singular backformation from the acronym KIPPERS (K(ids) I(n) P(arents') P(ockets) E(roding) R(etirement) S(avings)) perceived as a plural form]

  slummy mummy noun Colloquial. A mother of young children who has abandoned all care for her personal appearance. See yummy mummy. [slum + -m- + -y + mummy]

  lady garden noun Colloquial (euphemistic). A woman's pubic region.

  traffic light party noun A party for which the partygoers adopt an appropriate colour, often displayed on a wrist band, with green for singles, red for couples, and amber for those who are unsure of whether they wish to engage with the other sex or not.

[Stoat]

Ping

[RandallFlagg]

“Salad Dodger?!”
BWAAHAHAHAA!!!!

[Stoat]

arse antlers plural noun Colloquial. A tattoo just above the buttocks, having a central section and curving extensions on each side.

[ConservaTexan]

I have always called that a “tramp stamp”

[Stoat]

 

 

tart fuel noun Colloquial. Wine coolers and alcopops, viewed by men as deceptively alcoholic drinks that will lower a woman's resistance to sexual advances.

[Stoat]

I have always called that a “tramp stamp”

Me too.  Hideous, and the source of tremendous income for tattoo removal companies as these people begin to sag with age......

[generalhammond]

I like the “Helengrad” one. That means in the US, you might end up becoming Obamastan. In Australia, the new Labor government is already working on turning Australia into Ruddivostok.

[Stoat]

That means in the US, you might end up becoming Obamastan.

What an absolute nightmare scenario.  I hope that the media frenzy over B. Hussein Obama will turn out to be nothing more than that....to learn that anything approaching a majority here would elect such a Marxist / Socialist would be a devastating blow not only to those of us who love America but to the entire world economy.

The last couple of elections were so close that they were terrifying.  The closeness of the real numbers plus the rampant vote fraud by the Left is a serious concern indeed.

Keeping my furry stoat-fingers crossed for a rational election in 2008.

[ARE SOLE]

"Cook", noun. Australian slang. See. "wife".

Regards

[Stoat]

LMAO! :-)

[ARE SOLE]

Budgie smugglers : men’s bathing costume. (Speedos)

Regards

[Ben Hecks]

I have always liked the Aussie word for air mattress....”lie-low”

[Stoat]

It makes it sound almost sneaky, doesn’t it? :-)

[xcamel]

I remember the “Foster(s) Coaster”
Yer bed + “the spinnies”