Brr. With winter frosting up the windows, we decided it was time to wrap up for a doona day and explore some chilly slang.
No one wants to go outside during winter. That’s why the doona day exists, a kind of sanctioned sickie or mental health day in which you slop about the house in pyjamas and snuggle up on the couch with your doona. Sounds perfect.
You might need an extra blanket when the lazy wind is blowing, that’s a bitterly cold wind, too lazy to go around you so it cuts through you instead. If the wind keeps blowing you might be in for a one-dog night. That is, a reasonably cold night on the dog scale that runs from one dog to five. This piece of slang arose from the bushmen’s practise of sleeping with their dogs. The colder the night the more dogs needed to stay warm. Unless you’re a professional dog walker, I hope you never encounter a five-dog night!
Wrap up and stay warm, lest you catch the dreaded lurgy!
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.
