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Blogs

Don the baggy green

The baggy green is the cap worn by Australian test cricket players. It is traditionally presented to players before their debut test match, the baggy green

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No barney in the bar

Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. A barney is an argument or a fight. It is thought to have come across from a British dialect, though it isn’t certain how exactly it came to be. The word is also part of Polari, a slang language popular in British theatrical and comedy circles, particularly gay circles,

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Watch out for boomers at the beach, and on the streets

Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. This week we look at boomer. There are a lot of very different meanings for the word boomer in colloquial Australian English. The most common is as something large, like a crashing wave. But it is also popularly known to mean something successful or popular, as a party or song. A newer reference, unrelated to these two, is simply as the shortened version of baby boomer.

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Eight new words to watch

It’s that time again, when we look through our words to watch, often submitted by you for consideration in the Macquarie Dictionary. We are interested in hearing about

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The young fresh spuds have eyes, you know

Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. This week we look at spud. Perhaps the most versatile and popular vegetable on the planet, the spud (or potato, for those not in the know) is a staple of classic Aussie food. From chips to chips, it is part of almost every meal.

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Goon connoisseur

While the goon of today is generally understood to be cheap cask wine, this meaning didn’t appear until the 1990s. For at least a decade

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