Drinking: an Aussie tradition, and though we try to do so in moderation, occasionally things get out of hand and we find ourselves doing a shoey. A shoey is the act of drinking a beverage, usually an alcoholic beverage, out of a shoe. Often a ritual at the end of a sporting competition, especially motor sports, shoeys are a form of celebration.
Aussies have a lot of other words for drinking the amber fluid in quick or creative ways. Chug and neck are both ways to describe downing a drink quickly without pause, while chug-a-lug is a bout of drinking: a booze up.
Skol is perhaps the greatest and most well known way to say you are going to consume a drink at one draught. This piece of Aussie slang dates from the 1970s and originates from a verb use of the Scandinavian word for toast. Skol is also spelt scull, and yes, Macquarie have looked in depth at which spelling is most prominent in Australia.
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.
