Of course, I use contractions all the time now, but there are words that Australians know and use that the rest of the world just don't get (except perhaps the Brits, who we may had nicked some of them from), and I believe these should be celebrated. In fact, I named this blog after two of the more colourful sayings, "Don't come the raw prawn with me" and "Mad as a cut snake", but I'll explain those in time.
With no further ado, here's a quick glossary of some of the terms you may read (or more pointedly, not read) in this blog.
Raw Prawn - from "Don't come the raw prawn with me". It means, "don't try to fool me (I know what you're up to)". Apparently it was from World War One, where raw prawns were substituted for cooked ones as pranks. I chose this as part of my blog title as I didn't want to be bamboozled by North Americans. I'm on to you guys, and I'm chronicling it here. ;-)
Cut Snakes - from "Mad as a cut snake". It means, "Insane, mental". When a snake's head is cut off, it can thrash around uncontrollably, like it had gone insane. I chose it as the second part of this blog title as, well, sometimes you North Americans seem a bit mental to we poor reserved Aussies.
Root - also "rooted", "rooting". It means "to have sex" or "the sexual act". So when you Northerners talk about "rooting for your team" or (for WoW players) "I just rooted him so he didn't move!", please excuse the smirks on the Aussies' faces. We're trying to quash the Debbie Does Dallas style images that just popped into our heads. The brand name of "Roots Canada" just makes us feel really tired, or like we want to cross our legs.
Note to Aussies - this is not a brothel.
Fanny - means "vagina". Sorry North Americans, particularly USicans, but when you talk about "fanny packs", most Aussies near you will laugh, as was witnessed 13 years ago at a certain Girl Scout Camp in Ohio where one Aussie counsellor was trying to find the fanny pack of their campsite over their walkie talkie and had both themselves and the two other Aussies on camp gasping in hysterical laughter. Of course, we call them "bum bags". "Fanny pack" sounds like some kind of feminine hygiene product. For those ultra ultra heavy days!
Norgs - also "Naugs", "Nawgs" and "Norcs". It means "breasts". So, North American girlies, if some Bogan tells you to get your norgs out, you have my permission to either hit them or stalk off. Or get them out if you like the person. I've included this because of a conversation on Twitter where a US lassie was left a bit confused by an Aussie's reference to "norgs". That conversation was also the catalyst for this post. Apparently this term derived from an advertisement for Norcan Milk back in the 1950s, which had a cow with a rather large udder featured as its focal point.
Bloke - a man. Sometimes it means a particularly Australian man, exhibiting many of the stereotypes, but usually just to reference an adult of the male gender.
Shiela - a woman. This term is the female equivalent of bloke, but is falling out of favour now as it can also be a fairly derogatory term for an uncooth woman.
Bogan - I mostly addressed this in my last post, but these are essentially the equivalent of Rednecks or Chavs.
Berk - silly person, idiot. This one is probably derived from Burke of Burke and Wills fame - a pair of well known explorers who went up north trying to find the Gulf of Carpentaria, then got lost on the way back and didn't pay heed to how the natives prepared their seeds for eating. The poison in them nullified Vitamin B1, so the explorers contracted beriberi and died. Only one of their entire party made it back to Melbourne.
Dag - see berk. A dag is also the piece of faecal material stuck on the behind of a sheep; one of the worst jobs in a shearing shed was to be the dag man, or, the one left clipping off the dried lumps from the sheeps' bums. I have it on good authority that the phrase "To shake one's dags" means to leave - ie, the last thing they'll see of you is your bum, and they'll see your (metaphorical, hopefully!) dags shaking as you go.
Nicked - stolen. It can also mean "arrested by the police". It can be used in the forms of "nick off" (go away) or "get nicked" (a more vehement go away).
Divvy Van - Most famous for the chant of, "You're going home in the back of a divvy van! (clap, clap, clapclapclap, clapclapclapclap, clapclap)", it's a police transport vehicle most identified with taking drunks to the local police station for the night. It's short for "Divisional Van".
Thong - other places in the world seem to call these "flip-flops", and are a kind of strapless sandal. Thongs are for wearing on your feet in Australia, not up your bum crack. Those very thin panties are called "G-strings".
If there's any I've missed, or anything you are curious about or would like defined, just leave a message in the comments and I'll make another post another time.
* My apologies to my Southerner readership, but my parents were older people who lived (and fought, in my Dad's case) through World War II. All the American GIs were refered to as Yanks, no matter where they came from. This has tended to stick in the Aussie consciousness, not to mention my own. One day I might even post about the rhyming slang that made "Yank" even worse.
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