The New Dinkum Aussie Dictionary

Richard Beckett
New Holland Publishers, Australia, 2000

Review by Michele

Before acquiring my status as an Ozzie Ex-pat, I cringed at the idea of being seen to own a dictionary of Aussie slang, full of outmoded expressions that I’ve never actually heard anyone use, (even in my seismo days in Black Stump territory in central Queensland where the bushies still like to be nicknamed ‘the old drover’ and epitomise the Little Aussie Battler).

But personal experience and time changes everything and even mellows me. I thought I’d be right coming to live in America because I could understand Americans. It never occurred to me how much trouble they’d have understanding me. It’s not just the ‘cute’ (erk!) accent that causes the difficulties. While we often know what words, pleasantries and slang Americans do use, we usually don’t know the ones they don’t. So it’s not unusual to get perplexed looks when giving the customary light response ‘not bad, thanks’ to a ‘Hi, how are you?’ How much harder must it be when there’s not even the pretence of a shared language in other places.

And it occurred to me that this is where a dictionary of Aussie slanguage could come in really handy to suss out the words we use, and remind ourselves which ones are peculiarly Australian and are likely to cause confusion in the minds of other people who consider themselves English speaking or fluent in English, but who aren’t in the habit of guessing the meaning of strange words from their surrounding context, like Australians habitually do, even amongst themselves.

The Macquarie’s a bit limited on laughs, and unfortunately there are tons of collections of silly, obscure expressions out there that seem to be promoted as ‘typically’ Australian language that no Aussie actually uses (except to wind up gullible tourists). And the idea that only genuine Outback boys from Blackall and Longreach use colourful language is part of the stereotype, when, let’s face it, a liking for the use a witty metaphor is a universal and fundamental national trait of Ozzies, as anyone subscribing to Ozpost can attest.

So it was with some dread that I opened up green and gold covered paperback entitled ‘the new aussie dictionary’, complete as it is with bar-dwelling-ciggie-pack-in-the-t-shirt-sleeve-MAAATE! cartoon cariacuatures on the cover. But fortunately for my middle class female sensibilities, it gets better inside. This is the post-1986 edition of a tome edited for many years prior to that by Richard Beckett (a.k.a. "Crooked Mick of the Speewa"), and currently by Anne Matthews. Is it a woman’s touch that makes the difference in the palatability of this one? It’s the little add-on punch lines that make me grin:

"Bangs like a dunny door in a gale: Used by males in reference to any female of the species who is said to be free with her sexual favours. It inevitably turns out to be a lie"

"Bob’s yer uncle: She’s sweet, everything is okay. Thus the Australian reply to a NASA official’s query as to the possibility of a space shuttle lift off would be: ‘Bob’s your uncle, mate.’ As this would cause some confusion, Australians by and large are banned from verbal roles in free-world space scenarios."

Cute enough for me. I’ll keep it to educate visiting Yanks who think a reference to Oz means Kansas. Pity it doesn’t contain the word ‘Sepo’.

I think part of its entertainment value is that we’ll always get to argue about what’s appropriate to put in there. Like, how come we’ve got "By Jingo!" and not something that tons of people use, like "cripes!" Or "Bible basher" instead of "Creeping Jesus". Not to mention the fact that it might be time to add on to some of the definitions the subtle complexities that languages acquire and that accrue over time, such as "He’s a bit of a bloke" (said by one woman to another about a man who’s overly masculine in his habits…).

There is a quaint warning in the foreword to the book drawing attention to the fact that it contains derogatory terms. Very pc. So as responsible parents you will no doubt exercise care, restraint and supervision in the access you permit your children to have to this little record of our cultural legacy. Also small and light in the mail, and bound to give you a giggle (I just, personally hate the cover).