Your Guide to Australian Slang for QIP Sydney

AustralianWhiteIbis gobeirneTo everyone that’s attending QIP, welcome to Sydney!

Since I’ve already had to clarify a number of the finer points of Australian slang to my fellow attendees, I thought I would solve the general problem and simply post a helpful dictionary that translates some uniquely Australian words and usages into standard American English.

Also, this thing on the right is called an ibis. It’s not venomous.

Coffee

Flat white – Try this at least once while you’re here, preferably prepared by a highly skilled barista at one of the better cafes. It’s similar to a latte or to a cappuccino without the foam, but there are important differences.

Long black – Australian version of the Americano, a bit stronger and with crema. It’s the closest you’ll get to a cup of filtered drip coffee, if that’s your thing.

Short black – If you want a standard espresso, order a short black.

The Beach

Thongs – Sandals, or flip-flops. The highest level of dress code in Australia is “no thongs”.

Togs – Swimwear.

Esky – A cooler; the place where you store your beer to keep it cold while you’re getting pissed at the beach.

Pissed – Drunk; the state that a nontrivial fraction of people are in because it’s legal to drink at the beach.

Sunnies – Sunglasses.

Mozzy – Mosquito. Usually not a problem at the beach because there is almost always a breeze.

The Pub

Schooner – (SKOO-ner) A medium-sized glass of beer.

Jug – A pitcher of beer.

Shout – To buy a beer for someone, or a round of beers for your table.

Skol – To chug a beer. Usage: “Hey Robbo, if you skol that schooner I’ll shout you a jug.”

Hotel – In addition to the standard meaning, a hotel is a particular style of pub. It usually has high occupancy and a limited beer selection (though this is starting to improve as craft beer is finally catching on here).

Sports

Football – see “Footy”.

Footy – Rugby. It comes in several varieties, with League and Union being the two most popular varieties.

Gridiron – American football. Not generally watched much down under.

Cricket – An inscrutable game that takes 5 days to play. I think the only way you could like this game is to have the British invade, conquer your land, and occupy your territory under their colonial yoke for at least a few generations. That seems to be how everyone else got into it.

Rooting – Do not make the mistake of saying that you are “rooting for team X”; in Australia, rooting is slang for having sex.

Miscellaneous

Arvo – Afternoon.

Bickie – A cookie or biscuit.

Brekkie – Breakfast.

Fair dinkum – The closest translation is probably “for real”. It’s used to express the sentiment that you’re not deceiving the listener or exaggerating your claims.

8 Replies to “Your Guide to Australian Slang for QIP Sydney”

    1. Oh yeah! I forgot: prawn is Australian for shrimp. It was a big controversy here when Paul Hogan was seen in an ad saying “shrimp” instead of “prawn”.

  1. Steve, your homeland meets all your criteria for being a cricket loving nation. So you must be missing something. My suggestions for possibilities are “taste, subtlety and due regard for the sublime.” Otherwise, you just end up with baseball.

  2. *drinking at the beach is actually mostly illegal in Sydney.
    You missed “no worries” – which pretty much is used to indicate a level of worrying that goes from literally no worries to something of the order of quite a bit of concern.
    Eg, Q: “Could you move this hand-sized huntsman spider outside?”
    A: “Sure. *gulp* no worries.”

    1. Re: drinking at the beach, yes, technically illegal on the sands, but e.g. at Coogee it is legal to drink in the park area 3 meters from the sands until (I think) 7pm. And enforcement is very relaxed if you’re being civilized.

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