Want to impress an Aussie then slip in a reference from the the movie "The Castle" Favourites are : "That's going straight to the pool room" "Tell him he's dreamin" "Dale dug hole" “how's the serenity?” "He's an ideas man" "It's the vibe" Pays to watch the movie for context.
@Dug6666666 One of my favourite movies of all time, without a doubt! So utterly quotable..😂 I've been known to say these 4 phrases (and all yours too, lol) rather frequently ~ "It's Mabo" "It's what you do with it, Luv" "Jousting sticks???" "Its good luck, if the trunk is up"
"Couldn't organise a root in a brothel" is the standard description of someone deemed incompetent. It's often spiced up by adding "with a fist full of fifties" to the end of it.
Being English & living here for over 40 years.....I’ve heard so many Aussie slang sayings.....one of my absolute favs & there are so many this one ‘cracks me up’ Short arms, long pockets’ means the guy doesn’t but his round of drinks when it’s his turn....& finally in the same vein ‘Wouldn’t shout if a shark bit him’......thank you....
Legend has it that Bob Hawks (our Prime Minister in 80s) said at a high level government meeting in Japan, “We’re not here to buggerise around”. That phase was then translated in Japanese as, “The Prime Minister’s delegation is not here to have homosexual sex”. Aussies; refining the English language since 1901…
@duckmcf (can't be more Ozzie than that name lol). You're close enough. Exact: "I am not here to play funny buggers with you". Translated as, "I am not here to play laughing homosexuals with you." That's from The Age, & other News mobs have very similar. "laughing" is dropped out a lot tho. So may not have been said. Worth checking out that Age Article. Funny things in it; Title Foreign affairs to remember. By David Humphries. September 1, 2007 Was a "Queensland senator,.. two Finnish diplomats... an attractive Australian woman pursued by an unwanted suitor" & whatever you think that story might be, it goes completely elsewhere lol (& it is a lol).
We’ve been teaching my new boss from Singapore some slangs and she’s been getting the intonation right and all. We’ve had some exasperating dealings with colleagues who failed to deliver on some minor tasks. I was so proud when she said, “They couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery!” 😂
The phrase alludes to the rapid tongue-movement of a drinking lizard. It's not meant to be a yeah/nah thing. Small lizards run very fast and do everything fast, especially drinking, to get back into hiding from predators A.S.A.P.
Another slang term for being busy is: "running around like a blue arsed fly". My Mum used to say that but I think it's not really in use any more. Whatever a blue arsed fly was, I'm sure it moved really fast. One of my favourite slang terms is: "I'm so hungry, I could eat the arse off a low flying duck!" 😂
From Google....If one is running around like a blue-arsed fly you are not running around in the same way the fly would run around, but you are running around in the way the fly will fly around- hectic, hurried, noisy, maybe a little annoying and typically not - as far as one can tell - getting much done.
@@Boom0640 Pre-dates Squatter. I heard it first from my father (born 1915) shilst playing penny Poker with his mates and somebody taking time to decide whether he should call
I think it originated around the time of the Korean War when the price of wool skyrocketed to "a pound for a pound" or about $55 per kg in today's money. Sheep stations were suddenly hugely profitable.
My favorite, and funniest thing I've heard an old man say, was directed towards the town gossip who was walking toward us with a beaming smile.. Old mate says "oh here he comes.. the fkn galloping earwig". 😂😂
"Way to buggery" is an expression used by older Australians when travelling to a place that's a long way away as in "This place is way to buggery". My mother uses it all the time.
@sevysnape, We used to say to people that are always trying to stand out in a crowd & constantly want to be the center of antention all the time by wearing flashy Clothes like a bright yellow or Red suit or even flashier that it looks like it was made from their Grandmothers' loungeroom carpet that "YOU STICK OUT LIKE A SHITHOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIMPSON DESERT".
" Your as sharp as a pound of wet leather" generally gets a look from the recipient which confirms your statement. also love "he went mad and they shot im"
Am a Queenslander who emigrated to Tassie (climate change refugee), and heard a good comeback to the "two heads" which is "You must be a mainlander because if you had two heads you wouldn't have chosen that one."
40 odd years ago, I was working in a team doing a 5 year IT strategic plan for a major company in Bell Bay. I asked one of the local guys why most of the office people wore roll-neck sweaters. Quick as a flash he responded with "It's to hide the operation scar" (where the other head was removed). He then told me that most of the people working for the company had small farms where they kept sheep and goats. 🤣
I'm an Australian from French parents,you think you have it bad,when i was a kid,between my parents broken english and all the slang.....believe you me it was hard going....but my favorite would would have to be "is the Pope a catholic",for example ; would you like a beer ?" the reply would be ,is the Pope a catholic...meaning yes.
Chock a block is a nautical term which derived from the practice of choking a block, which is to stop a rope from running through a block by pushing the rope back on top of the pulley to stop it moving.
Although now knowing it’s origin I might use the terms ‘chockers’ and ‘chock a block’ differently. I usually use chockers for when, say, the fridge is full of stuff but there would be space if you rearranged things. I use chock a block when it’s been arranged and NOTHING else could possibly squeeze in - a subtle difference but one that seems to be about the same whomever is describing the situation.
There was a various artist album back in the late 70s called Choc-O-Block that had a lady eating a chocolate bar of the songs on the cover, just to muddy the waters.
@@user-Dadbod_Hiker I was a midwife and have heard childbirth described as "like shitting a pineapple out backwards." It's a pretty spot on explanation, especially if you're female.
I gave a French mate who was working here for a couple of years a book containing a thousand different Aussie sayings. He opened to a random page and it read "I have been running around like a fart in a colander looking for a hole to get out" which obviously went right over his head. Once I explained it he absoulately cracked up and for the rest of his time in the country (and probably after he went home) he looked for any opportunity to drop it into a converstaion. People got more laughs from watching him than the actual saying itself as he had no idea of context he would even drop it places like management meetings.. Lucky he didnt open the book to the page about the spiders or his visit may have been shorter.................
Buckley's & Nunn was Melbourne's most central department store from the 1800s until it was bought out by David Jones in the 1980s. I'm nearly 40, and my late father always explained that the slang term "you've got Buckley's" was a shortened form of the cheeky statement "you've got two chances, Buckley's and (none/Nunn)". I've never heard the escaped convict interpretation, but it makes sense that the truth is a combination of both, as it turns the store name into a dual pun. The Wikipedia article for the store mentions this.
@@Amanda-uc5jq yeah somebody in another thread on here mentioned that a Sydney journalist back then had made the convict connection, but not the store connection, so it was printed to most of Australia with only partial info.
Yes, my thoughts too. "Mum is as angry as a cut snake!" Means we broke a window playing cricket or stepped on her petunias. Snakes can be angry, but a snake that has a cut would be furious!
My grandma used to use it to mean crazy; she’d use it in the same rant about someone she thought was ‘cuckoo’, as in ‘mad as a hatter’ and ‘mad as a two-bob watch’, and yes, I heard such a rant once. When I think of a cut snake, I think of it writhing around like, let’s say, a committed mental health patient on a bad day.
@@davidkelly3779 why would a cut snake be crazy? It refers to the thrashing around of a snake. Cold blooded means it takes forever to stop thrashing around.
An Aussie phrase that’s still used today and one that Istill use frequently for various reasons is one that donates something that doesn’t work properly for someone that is useless or does things stupidly etc is an Aussie slang terminology that really sums up the situation “ Useless as Tits on a Chook” some people still use a variation to that “ useless as Tits on a Bull “ which really gives a very accurate assessment of the situation in no uncertain terms!
Buckley's comes from Buckley and Nunn. An upmarket old timey Department store in Melbourne CBD that's no longer around. Simple rhyming slang plays on Nunn as None.
As Robbo just mentioned, it comes from the story of an escaped convict William Buckley. He survived for 32 years among the indigenous people. The term became 'you got 2 chances, Buckleys and None' Meaning Buckley had a very low chance of surviving....and of course none means bugger all.
This is half right, Buckley was an old time explorer back when Burke & Wills we’re making a name for themselves. Buckley died searching for the in-land sea thought to be in the centre of Australia, the Nunn part was added later.
I love our Aussie banter --- Angry/mad - "Going off like a frog in a sock" Scared - "Nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs" Drunk - "Full as a boot" or "Three sheets to the wind" Fast - "quick as a stocking off a duck's lip" Stupid or dumb -"Thick as brick" or "Thick as two short planks"
When somebody is dressed up well but you have to give them a cheeky dig - " Flash as a rat with a gold tooth." Teenage boys after a growth spurt = " All prick and ribs like a starving dingo."
"Wouldn't pull the skin off a custard" when describing a car with a not very powerful engine. "Wouldn't pull the hat off your head" is another variation.
Great video. Even tho I am a NZ'er (67) I was bought up with this slang so very familiar with them. One of my favourites in Ozzi (and not heard in NZ) is to say 'Blow it out your arse' meaning just move on from an issue
The longest and best fast food shops in Australia were the Fish and Chip shops, and the Delli's for a pie or pasty. Fish and chip shops use to be a just about every corner. Back in the days of the Greek and Italian immigrants. Most are gone now.
There are a lot of old saying that have fallen out of use. You still hear them in the country every now and again. Like "holly snappen duck shit"(im quite surprised) or I went for a "fang", or "fang it" (put the foot down). My wifes uncle, whos a farmer in Western Victoria still says "my giddy aunt" or "strike me pink" when he's surprised.
And the other oldies here may remember asking a parent what something was and them answering "a wigwam for a goose's bridle" ( i.e. none of your business, don't ask)
I remember that one well. By the time you tried to work out why a goose would need a bridle (and why such a thing would be kept in a wigwam) you would have forgotten your question. Used by older family members when a child overheard adult talk and asked awkward questions.
That’s a new one and I’m a 77 year old Aussie! Another that I hadn’t heard before “ ripped off like a Band-Aid “. Isn’t that wonderful? Oh how I love our irreverent Aussie humour. Not even clever Pommy humour comes close.
I once knew an American who loved the term 'sticky-beak', referring to a bird that would stick its beak into something looking for something to eat, or just out of curiosity. A person who was a sticky-beak was someone who would stick their nose into things that weren't their business.
she's apples means she's all good. Mad as a cut snake comes from early settlers and farmers. ploughing sometimes wounds snakes and they writhe around like crazy till they work out there not under attack
Never heard she's apples til recently on these types of videos never heard anyone actually say it around me🤷♀️. I hear she'll be right or it's all good all the time though.
Up here in Darwin, you’ll sometimes hear someone saying “I’ll take the foot falcon” - meaning they’ll walk to a place, instead of driving there - perhaps in a Ford Falcon.
I’m pretty sure shanks’s pony doesn’t have an Aussie origin, but I could be wrong. I think I’ve only heard my Mum & aunts (daughters of cockney immigrants) use it. And now you.
Aussies seem to keep coming up with new slang words and expressions all the time. Dunny budgies for blowflies is a good one. But I like" the hamster is dead but the wheel is still turning," used when someone has absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
@@rodhmu When I was real little and anyone'd say, "Bob's your uncle," I would cry and say, "No! he's me DAD!" But I got a few people back when I was older and they'd ask "Where do you live?" I'd say, "I live at the Post Office." They'd say "Nah, where do you live, not where do you gettcha mail." I'd let them ask a cuppla more times and then sweetly say..."I actually DO live AT the South Post Office!"
@@arthurross8553 Like "being up a well-known tributary without a means of conveyance." As an Aussie, it's my bloody right to use this language like I stole it! And if you look at the long version, the spelling and sound is an absolute delight! That repetition of vowels and sounds. "Roberts your mother's brother."
As the others correctly stated it refers to the flattened out posture ie. low to the ground (flat out on the ground) that you could imagine the proverbial lizard being in when it was low to the ground at a waterhole etc. having a drink. It is a fun saying.
When I was a kid, we played board games. Naturally there were arguments. When we got too loud we would hear "Quiet down, you're not playing for sheep stations!" Every so often though we were playing "Squatter". That's a game where each player owns a sheep station. Of course, we would yell back "Yes we are!"
'Kicking shit up a hill in a pair of thongs' is one of my favourites meaning its a challenging/unpleasant task that has messy consequences. I cringe at the imagery
I've heard quite a few 'Aussie-isms' in my 50 years of being, but one I'd never heard before was from a Victorian Biker staying at my Sister's Fiancé's house. We'd just finished a Sunday Roast for lunch and this bloke leans back and says "I'm as full as a fat lady's undies!"...I near on fell off my chair I was laughing so hard.
"A Furphy" or tale is a classic WWI bit of slang. They were water carts manufactured by J Furphy and Sons of Shepparton, distinctive for the cast iron ends. In the Great War, they were used to provide water to the fighting men who would venture from the platoons to collect water, swap stories and like a Chinese whisper would get distorted with each retelling.
That's how I know it to have come about too. The cast iron tank ends which can still be found on old farms have the words cast into them 'Good better best never let it rest until your good is better and your better best'
Other slang worth checking up is wower (sot of an old term for woke). The other being POM (Englishman usually). POM = Prisoner of Mother England, or I like the reference to a pommy granite - "useless and full of pips". @@BushTerrors
The army has a furphy water cart at the front of the hq of the “home of the soldier” Kapooka where all recruits are trained. With a brass plaque explaining this
One that I haven’t heard for a long time is “As camp as a row of tents. I used to live in London and passed on a few of our sayings to an English work colleague. This one cracked her up…
C.A.M.P. .. Campaign Against Moral Persecution. British in origin. Probably the oldest pro gay organization. Hence the word "camp" came to mean homosexual. End of history lesson.
Just an aside on education institutions; college in the US means (presumably) a finishing secondary school or a university. In Australia we don't have elementary schools. It's just primary then secondary schools. In fact most universities in the US are called "colleges". Here, fairly rare. Colleges are usually private secondary schools. Universities are just called that (not colleges, unless they are residential dormitories connected to a university interestingly enough), and Technical and Further Education colleges are just called TAFE (or tafe). TAFE has a broad curricula, but sometimes it is for fiirst and second year trade apprentices. Colleges are for nobs.
Some old Aussie phrases that came about from cricket (the sport, not the insect): Pulling up stumps = quitting; leaving; going home; going to bed. Stumps up = it's closing time/the party or event is over, it's now time for everyone to leave/go home. Here 'til stumps = Here until closing time. 6pm until stumps = 6pm until late, usually when everyone has had enough and decided to go home of their own accord. He got knocked for six = He was hit very hard. That was left of field = that was unusual and unexpected.
No rest for the wicket? (I know some say this as "wicked", but wicket makes more sense to me. In the corporate world I used to hear "close of play", eg at the end of the day or an event. Also, elevenses.
@@SaintKimboI am with you. I had never heard of it until a saw a video of Margo Robbie (maybe it was Margo or perhaps another popular Australian actress a couple of years ago) in a you tube video give explanation of Australian slag and I was astounded to hear that one Edit: to be honest I reckon it’s a recent invention and/or was a regional only thing and has only recently gone national
It's often 'Well, that was better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick", especially after something quite pleasurable! 😂 (If you've ever been poked in the eye with a burnt/burning stick during a bushfire, it's actually unbelievably painfull.)
The full saying is "you've got two chances, Buckley's and none." Buckley was a convict who escaped and only survived by living with the Aborigines. Most escaped convicts died so Buckley surviving was a slim chance and Buckley was often replaced with slim.
The original phase seems to be "You've got Buckley's chance". The "You've got two chances, Buckley's and none" may be a punning development of the phrase in Melbourne where there was a famous department store mid 19th Century, Buckley's and Nunn.
There's a story of a phrase that only an Aussie could understand... In the very early 1980's, when three IBM executives had two days off mid-conference so flew from Sydney to Alice Springs, to see Uluru (Ayre's Rock then). Upon arrival at Alice Springs Airport to return, they were informed by the Airport everything (gate attendant, air controller, weatherman, etc.) "Sorry Ocker, The Fokker's Chocker".
An old one you mightn't have heard yet, or could be in a wild phrase vid, is "Dry as a nuns nasty" which can be used as a response if someone asks if you're thirsty or as a response if someone asks if you've had rain when a drought is going on (or just over summer)
Dry as a dead dingo's donger - rather thirsty Heaps good - South Australian for a lot Fill your boots - Army slang for carry-on (originally was piss yourself while on guard) Get your shit in one sock - similar to above but get yourself sorted out Blow the froth of a couple - have a beer Crack a tinny - have a beer Dirty bird - KFC or killed fried chook (chook is chicken) Eat the crutch out of a low-flying duck - hungry There are so many, Aussies slang everything, afternoon is Arvo, breakfast is brekki, child is ankle biter etc
"Mad as a cut snake" can actually be used in two senses. First of all, as has been pointed out, a "cut snake" can refer to one which has injured - ie cut - during an attempt to kill it, and is therefore understandably very angry. Secondly though, the wild, unco-ordinated jerkings of a cut or injured snake readily suggest that it has gone mad as in insane. My father had a variation of it in which he would say that someone was "...as mad as a sunburnt snake" and anyone who has felt the pain of severe sunburn will understand how that fits.
If someone asks you if you want a drink you might answer “does the Pope shit in the woods?” It means - of course. It’s an ironic mix of “is the Pope Catholic” and “does a bear shit in the woods”.
I have a theory about the spiders. Someone working in a warehouse walks into a big cobweb and says "Fucken spiders!!!" and a quick thinking work mate says "We're not here to fuck spiders!"
One of my favourites is - full as a nurse with a runny nose. You can always substitute air hostess, (or any other female profession that has a reputation for being rogered more than an army radio), for nurse.
Another one you may or may not have heard… ‘Not happy Jan!!’ If someone is more than a bit upset with someone or something. From a TV commercial where Jan was the employee and the boss was not excited about something she had done.
The irony about Buckleys Chance was it comes from a convict who actually made it!! (Escaped and lived with a 1st Nation mob) even though it was against the odds.
Yeah good one. A sandwich short of a picnic would be almost a daily from me. Also it's so cold it will freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Don't know the origin or what a brass monkey is but i don't give a hoot. I use it anyway.
@@aussie_al I read that a brass monkey was a frame to store cannon balls, and if it got cold enough presumably they would contract enough to fall off. Or something.
Quite enjoyed hearing these reflected back. In respect of using Buckley’s, I use “You’ve got three chances mate”, and if a response is required, answer “None, Buckley’s, and sweet FA”
My father used to say, during my childhood, that an overly dramatic person was 'carrying on like a two-bob watch'. In the days before decimal currency arrived here in 1966, a bob was a shilling; a watch that cost only two shillings was therefore wholly unreliable. I must admit, I'd never myself heard 'Macca's run' or the reference to sexual assaults upon arachnids. And I was born here.
The bob carried on through current currency as a bob became 10 cents and 2 bob was 20 cents as a kid not long after the currency change the scouts still done "bob a job" going house to house to do jobs for donations, bet kids don't get sent out like that anymore.
Another one is "You're fucking this cat, I'm just holding its tail", meaning this is your responsibility, not mine, or you're in charge, don't ask me. Also a song by White Knuckle Fever...
Chock a Block it comes from the use of wooden blocks /wedge that were used to stop cars / planes from moving when they were stationery - thus chock a block means to stop something which is a play on words to mean something is tightly packed and there is no room to move
Anyone that's swung a scythe clearing scrub and encountered them will attest to the accuracy of the saying. They get very pissed off when you take a swing at or nick them with a scythe. Sometimes snakes can also survive for a time going through reach or flat deck mowers attached to tractors clearing roadsides..
@@erroneouscodeok. Maybe. My Mum's family are rural (she's my language influencer, not my Dad). I grew up in a regional coastal city in Qld. So, if mine is rural... mine is the same interpretation as her in Sydney? I dont get the rural/city explanation - haha. Rural people - as in outback sheep and cattle - I know would all use Mad as a Cut Snake in same way as I understand. I definitely don't use in conversation, but these people do when they're telling stories or describing people. Interesting. Maybe QLD and NSW use it the same way?
Learning the vernacular of Australian's lexicon is guaranteed to make you 'one of the bunch', whatever colour, shape, or religious persuasion you might be. If someone says "strueth, ya got Buckley's mate", I know they're dinkum. 🇦🇺
My all time fave is. and always will be, when you think someone is telling you BS. Dont come the raw prawn with me mate. which i try to translate into every language i can. It bamboozles every one.
Pakapoo ticket. When I was a boy with untidy bedroom, my Dad used say "your room looks like a Pakapoo ticket". I didn't know the origin, but in the context I knew what he meant, and it sounded bad. Apparently during the gold rush days, the Chinese played a game called Pakapoo, that they gambled on and it involved lots of tickets/dockets covered with unintelligible Chinese characters, dropped everywhere.
My all time fave has to be “Flash as a rat with a gold tooth.” Which means you’re “Tarted up” or “got your good clobber on” or your all dressed up and groomed. Well as best as you can anyway.
@@roshee5573 that more refers to an older person (usually a woman) trying to pass themselves off as looking a lot younger - usually with heaps of make-up and clothes that don't really suit their age
I thought it was more derisive like a used car salesman who is too slick. He's flash as a rat with a gold tooth. He's a rat but he's got bling going on
My take on this is: A cut snake behaves in a very hostile manner, i.e. it is mad. But the alternate meaning of 'mad' is the one signified in this usage (I.e, insane), with the connection being the magnitude of the mad, which is denoted as very significant in the first usage. As an example, multiple miggs was as mad as a cut snake.
I think it can mean crazy or angry, but both to the point where the individual is dangerous to be around. Not sure why this one is hard to figure out for the video creator: if a snake was cut with a knife, it would mightily pissed off.
I worked in aged care and one of my favourite sayings was “as full as the family Poe “ when Aussies only had outdoor dunnies at night the would often share a family pottie - Poe and empty it in the morning.
In a white collar concept, I have heard and used with my boss "I can't do the work because I am flat out like a lizard drinking" Boss: "We're are not here to fuck spiders", Me "Fuck me dead, she'll be right".
Want to impress an Aussie then slip in a reference from the the movie "The Castle"
Favourites are :
"That's going straight to the pool room"
"Tell him he's dreamin"
"Dale dug hole"
“how's the serenity?”
"He's an ideas man"
"It's the vibe"
Pays to watch the movie for context.
Aahh , so that's where Albo got his idea for Referendum reasoning from !
I love that film.
Not forgetting, what's this love, chicken...
@Dug6666666
One of my favourite movies of all time, without a doubt! So utterly quotable..😂 I've been known to say these 4 phrases (and all yours too, lol) rather frequently ~
"It's Mabo"
"It's what you do with it, Luv"
"Jousting sticks???"
"Its good luck, if the trunk is up"
'kn oath you're right.
"Couldn't organise a root in a brothel" is the standard description of someone deemed incompetent. It's often spiced up by adding "with a fist full of fifties" to the end of it.
It's a "root in the Mallee" to us Victorian's. Once the most common vegetation in that area.
I use this with the "fist full of fifties" addition quite often 😂
With a rager and 10 bored girls winking at him
I tend to go with "Couldn't organise a root in a monkey whorehouse with a handful of bananas"
Couldn't organise a root in a brothel on a free night
Being English & living here for over 40 years.....I’ve heard so many Aussie slang sayings.....one of my absolute favs & there are so many this one ‘cracks me up’ Short arms, long pockets’ means the guy doesn’t but his round of drinks when it’s his turn....& finally in the same vein ‘Wouldn’t shout if a shark bit him’......thank you....
lol yes both good old pub classics those
And for those thta lack generosity, "If he was a ghost he wouldn't give you a fright."
@@philcrowley A beaut, that! And what about 'So mean that he wouldn't give you a light for your pipe if his house was on fire'.
He has a Death adder in his pocket!!!🤣 is one of my favs!!
I know a bloke called whisper, he won't shout.
Legend has it that Bob Hawks (our Prime Minister in 80s) said at a high level government meeting in Japan, “We’re not here to buggerise around”. That phase was then translated in Japanese as, “The Prime Minister’s delegation is not here to have homosexual sex”. Aussies; refining the English language since 1901…
And the time he referred to employers as ‘bums’ when Australia II won the Americas cup if staff were chastised for taking a day off
I think it was "play silly buggers"
@duckmcf (can't be more Ozzie than that name lol). You're close enough. Exact:
"I am not here to play funny buggers with you". Translated as, "I am not here to play laughing homosexuals with you." That's from The Age, & other News mobs have very similar. "laughing" is dropped out a lot tho. So may not have been said.
Worth checking out that Age Article. Funny things in it;
Title Foreign affairs to remember. By David Humphries. September 1, 2007
Was a "Queensland senator,.. two Finnish diplomats... an attractive Australian woman pursued by an unwanted suitor" & whatever you think that story might be, it goes completely elsewhere lol (& it is a lol).
@@CBM_Walks Thanks for the correction. I didn’t think had that quote exactly right…
Whatever he said, the translation is wonderful. 😂Poor Japanese.
We’ve been teaching my new boss from Singapore some slangs and she’s been getting the intonation right and all. We’ve had some exasperating dealings with colleagues who failed to deliver on some minor tasks. I was so proud when she said, “They couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery!” 😂
We’ve always said couldn’t organise a root in a brothel
A less crude version of that is “couldn’t organise a cake stall/meat raffle”
@@christopherharvie8716 + chook raffle
@@christopherharvie8716 or the ruder version "a root in a brothel"
A more crude version is "couldn't organise a root in a brothel"
"Shits me to Tears" is one of my go-to's
Think of a lizard drinking, not walking. To drink, a lizard has to be flat out on it's belly. So, hence the term, flat out like a lizard drinking.
Some lizards/amphibians absorb water through their skin so when they're really thirsty/exhausted they'll flatten out in a pool of water to rehydrate.
Yep. Nothing to do with speed- when lizard (pretty low to the ground anyway) gets down for drinking -now THAT’S flat out.
FLAT OUT = LOOK at the Lizards Tongue = IT is Flat Out Going Like the Clappers
The phrase alludes to the rapid tongue-movement of a drinking lizard. It's not meant to be a yeah/nah thing. Small lizards run very fast and do everything fast, especially drinking, to get back into hiding from predators A.S.A.P.
Thank you. Needed to be said.
"As crooked as a dog's hind leg", was a popular one when my father was talking about politicians.
and car salesmen.
@@erroneouscodesome people said as straight as a dog's.......
My mum used to say that about parking...
Can't add a comment right now because I'm "busier than a one legged man in an arse kicking contest".
😂🤣 Cassic! Lol
Have you been busy have ya?
One armed paper hanger with the crabs!
Or a one legged tightrope walker or a one armed piccolo player.
or busier than a bricklayer in beirut.
Another slang term for being busy is: "running around like a blue arsed fly". My Mum used to say that but I think it's not really in use any more. Whatever a blue arsed fly was, I'm sure it moved really fast. One of my favourite slang terms is: "I'm so hungry, I could eat the arse off a low flying duck!" 😂
From Google....If one is running around like a blue-arsed fly you are not running around in the same way the fly would run around, but you are running around in the way the fly will fly around- hectic, hurried, noisy, maybe a little annoying and typically not - as far as one can tell - getting much done.
A Blue Arsed Fly is a blowfly mate🪰...
Australias National Bird.
Also, both in Oz & in the UK, there are bluebottle (blue, duhh) & greenbottle flies- their tail ends are the colour.... 😊
I've only ever heard so hungry I could eat the crutch out of a low flying duck, or so hungry I could eat a horse and chase the jockey
@@baabaabaa-El The "Dunny Budgie".
A favorite of mine: "Come on, were not not playing for sheep stations here.' Means relax and stop taking what we are currently doing so seriously.
wasnt that from that board game, squatter or something. like monopoly but with stations etc.
Yeah it was Squatter l played when l was a kid..hated it because of all the sheep pieces?
But not sure if it came from that?
@@Boom0640 Pre-dates Squatter. I heard it first from my father (born 1915) shilst playing penny Poker with his mates and somebody taking time to decide whether he should call
I think it originated around the time of the Korean War when the price of wool skyrocketed to "a pound for a pound" or about $55 per kg in today's money. Sheep stations were suddenly hugely profitable.
Then there's the opposite: "C'mon mate, we're not here to f**k spiders"
My favorite, and funniest thing I've heard an old man say, was directed towards the town gossip who was walking toward us with a beaming smile..
Old mate says "oh here he comes.. the fkn galloping earwig".
😂😂
“Newman…!”🤬
"Ahh for f**ks sake" is one of my personal favourites. 😂🇦🇺
Haha..mine to..and l don't really get it??
@@Boom0640
Me either, just one of those things that rolls off the tongue when something bad happens. 😀
@@Boom0640 it would be a creative adjustment of "for Christ's sake", asking for divine intervention, which we use a lot as well.
@@geoffcapper5025 Yeah agree l reckon one is used for a depressive moment the other for that bloody frustrating moment...
Another one is " it's like trying to put a pound of butter up a a cat's arce with a feather"
"Way to buggery" is an expression used by older Australians when travelling to a place that's a long way away as in "This place is way to buggery". My mother uses it all the time.
Or, "They can go to buggery" 😅
It's "out the back of Bourke" - same meaning. 😎
Pronounced "waaaaay to buggery"
Also 'beyond the black stump'.
Mad as a cut snake in WA means super angry.
One of my favourites…when something is very obvious……it is said to stand out like dogs balls.
I've only ever heard 'sticks out like dogs balls'
@@sevysnape Yes I’ve heard that too. Never sure which it should be.
If it’s good. “A ball tearer”
@sevysnape, We used to say to people that are always trying to stand out in a crowd & constantly want to be the center of antention all the time by wearing flashy Clothes like a bright yellow or Red suit or even flashier that it looks like it was made from their Grandmothers' loungeroom carpet that "YOU STICK OUT LIKE A SHITHOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIMPSON DESERT".
stands out like dogs ball on a cat.
One of my favs is "don't p155 in my pocket and tell me it's raining".
"don't p155 in my pocket" also means "Don't butter me up"
This is one of my faves as well and you dont gt a whole lot more Oz than that.
" Your as sharp as a pound of wet leather" generally gets a look from the recipient which confirms your statement. also love "he went mad and they shot im"
Am a Queenslander who emigrated to Tassie (climate change refugee), and heard a good comeback to the "two heads" which is "You must be a mainlander because if you had two heads you wouldn't have chosen that one."
Gold
Climate change is fake and ghey
Good comeback! Said to an NZ Kiwi one day, 'so you are from the eighth state of Australia?' He replied, 'Ahh, you must be from the West Island.'
40 odd years ago, I was working in a team doing a 5 year IT strategic plan for a major company in Bell Bay. I asked one of the local guys why most of the office people wore roll-neck sweaters. Quick as a flash he responded with "It's to hide the operation scar" (where the other head was removed). He then told me that most of the people working for the company had small farms where they kept sheep and goats. 🤣
@@keithad6485 They’d’ve done well to also point out to you that Australia only has six states 😄
If you've seen a pork chop on a BBQ spitting, hissing and shaking around you'll understand.
As welcome as a pork chop in a
"Sparrow fart" meaning early in the morning, often shortened to just "sparrows" e.g. "we'll need to be up at sparrows".
I'm an Australian from French parents,you think you have it bad,when i was a kid,between my parents broken english and all the slang.....believe you me it was hard going....but my favorite would would have to be "is the Pope a catholic",for example ; would you like a beer ?" the reply would be ,is the Pope a catholic...meaning yes.
Does the pope wear a funny hat
And now - is the pope a catholic - nah he’s a satanist.
. there you go,you're starting to understand Aussie humor..
it's more used as a way of sayin' "did ya have to ask me?" than a straight , yes
Are the Kennedys gun shy?
Chock a block is a nautical term which derived from the practice of choking a block, which is to stop a rope from running through a block by pushing the rope back on top of the pulley to stop it moving.
Although now knowing it’s origin I might use the terms ‘chockers’ and ‘chock a block’ differently. I usually use chockers for when, say, the fridge is full of stuff but there would be space if you rearranged things. I use chock a block when it’s been arranged and NOTHING else could possibly squeeze in - a subtle difference but one that seems to be about the same whomever is describing the situation.
@@HippiMikkii use them similarly to describe my stomach. If I'm chokers I can still squeeze some dessert in there.
wrong! it means to pulley blocks touching hence you can not go any further
There was a various artist album back in the late 70s called Choc-O-Block that had a lady eating a chocolate bar of the songs on the cover, just to muddy the waters.
@@peterschults5591 Used in the novel "Two years before the mast" by Dana in the context of loading the ship's hold as full as possible.
“Got the rough end of the pineapple” is another one.
But both ends of a pineapple are rough 😉
@@user-Dadbod_Hiker I was a midwife and have heard childbirth described as "like shitting a pineapple out backwards." It's a pretty spot on explanation, especially if you're female.
I gave a French mate who was working here for a couple of years a book containing a thousand different Aussie sayings. He opened to a random page and it read "I have been running around like a fart in a colander looking for a hole to get out" which obviously went right over his head. Once I explained it he absoulately cracked up and for the rest of his time in the country (and probably after he went home) he looked for any opportunity to drop it into a converstaion. People got more laughs from watching him than the actual saying itself as he had no idea of context he would even drop it places like management meetings.. Lucky he didnt open the book to the page about the spiders or his visit may have been shorter.................
🤣🤣🇦🇺🇫🇷🤷♀️
😂😂😂😂😂❤
😆😆🤣🤣🤣👍
You should have seen the reaction from my doctor when I told him that I wasn't ready for a wooden overcoat priceless😂
Another one to tell your doctor was "feeling as crook as Rookwood". Rookwood being the local cemetery in here in Sydney.
Only heard that for the first time recently.
Buckley's & Nunn was Melbourne's most central department store from the 1800s until it was bought out by David Jones in the 1980s. I'm nearly 40, and my late father always explained that the slang term "you've got Buckley's" was a shortened form of the cheeky statement "you've got two chances, Buckley's and (none/Nunn)". I've never heard the escaped convict interpretation, but it makes sense that the truth is a combination of both, as it turns the store name into a dual pun. The Wikipedia article for the store mentions this.
I’ve always heard that was the origin of the phrase as well and I’m over 70.
Yep ,I’m 76 and that’s what I heard and use too
I’ve never heard the store story only the one about William Buckley, that’s the story national geographic had back in the 70’s 80’s.
@@Amanda-uc5jq yeah somebody in another thread on here mentioned that a Sydney journalist back then had made the convict connection, but not the store connection, so it was printed to most of Australia with only partial info.
I never knew that!
"Mad as a cut snake" has to do with mad = angry, not mad = crazy.
Yes, my thoughts too. "Mum is as angry as a cut snake!" Means we broke a window playing cricket or stepped on her petunias. Snakes can be angry, but a snake that has a cut would be furious!
My grandma used to use it to mean crazy; she’d use it in the same rant about someone she thought was ‘cuckoo’, as in ‘mad as a hatter’ and ‘mad as a two-bob watch’, and yes, I heard such a rant once. When I think of a cut snake, I think of it writhing around like, let’s say, a committed mental health patient on a bad day.
Yeah my thoughts too. Pissed off is close.
Nah, it really does mean they are crazy. You city folk are so funny!
@@davidkelly3779 why would a cut snake be crazy? It refers to the thrashing around of a snake. Cold blooded means it takes forever to stop thrashing around.
Describing someone lazy "I've seen more go in a stop sign".
😂
Describing a slow coach…three seconds slower than a statue.
Wouldn’t work in an iron lung
The Opposite: "What is he/she doing, tryna' break the land speed record?"
They sent him for an xray to see if there was an ounce of work left in him.
An Aussie phrase that’s still used today and one that Istill use frequently for various reasons is one that donates something that doesn’t work properly for someone that is useless or does things stupidly etc is an Aussie slang terminology that really sums up the situation “ Useless as Tits on a Chook” some people still use a variation to that “ useless as Tits on a Bull “ which really gives a very accurate assessment of the situation in no uncertain terms!
"Useless as an ashtray on a motorbike"
As useful as a hip pocket on a singlet.
As useful as a glass door on a public dunny.
Useless as a screen door on a submarine.
Useless as a wooden leg in a bushfire.
As useless as pockets in jocks
Trap door in a canoe 😊
Buckley's comes from Buckley and Nunn. An upmarket old timey Department store in Melbourne CBD that's no longer around.
Simple rhyming slang plays on Nunn as None.
Actually it doesn't that's a misconception. It comes from the convict William Buckley
As Robbo just mentioned, it comes from the story of an escaped convict William Buckley. He survived for 32 years among the indigenous people. The term became 'you got 2 chances, Buckleys and None' Meaning Buckley had a very low chance of surviving....and of course none means bugger all.
This is half right, Buckley was an old time explorer back when Burke & Wills we’re making a name for themselves. Buckley died searching for the in-land sea thought to be in the centre of Australia, the Nunn part was added later.
We used it in Africa, I thought it was english
F*ck me dead is typically used to signal frustration at someone's incompetence.
Or disbelief.
It has many uses, lol.
Frustrated, Surprised, Shocked, it's very flexible.
@@SaintKimbo Another of which is sarcasm as in eff me dead if I should be expected to know that.
@@SaintKimboagreed. It's like sh@t and f÷ck... we use it in so many different contexts.
It can be that too
‘Shit me to tears’ is another good one.
Was that a song?
@@VanillaMacaron551 Yep, by The Tenants. Top tune :)
It's one I use all the time
@@rhonafenwick5643FFS, gimme a break😂
@@emceeboogieboots1608 I was hoping someone would reply with this. 🙂
'Stands out like dog's balls' for anything very noticeable. My favourite!😂
A very old one I still love is “Flash as a rat with a gold tooth”. Which leads on to “Quarter flash and half foolish” or just “ quarter flash”.
I think that the old saying was, 'quarter flash and three parts foolish'
Mug lair is in there too.
I love our Aussie banter ---
Angry/mad - "Going off like a frog in a sock"
Scared - "Nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs"
Drunk - "Full as a boot" or "Three sheets to the wind"
Fast - "quick as a stocking off a duck's lip"
Stupid or dumb -"Thick as brick" or "Thick as two short planks"
There's also "nervous as a butcher's thumb".
We use to say Full as a Copper's boot
I'm as dry as a dead dingo's donger
When somebody is dressed up well but you have to give them a cheeky dig - " Flash as a rat with a gold tooth."
Teenage boys after a growth spurt = " All prick and ribs like a starving dingo."
Would say going off like a frog in a sock is actually just very excited. Not mad/angry
A lot of the others here are sayings from the UK.
"Wouldn't pull the skin off a custard" when describing a car with a not very powerful engine. "Wouldn't pull the hat off your head" is another variation.
Wouldn't pull ya foreskin back...
Couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
Couldn’t pull a sailor off ya sister!
'A few roos loose in the top paddock' meaning mad, mentally ill, out of control.
My favourite 😊
a few snags (sausages) short on the barbie;
@@mariaobrien1747a few sangers (sandwiches) short of a picnic
@@Steve21945a few cans short of a carton
In the US, this would apply to many a Trump devotee
Great video. Even tho I am a NZ'er (67) I was bought up with this slang so very familiar with them. One of my favourites in Ozzi (and not heard in NZ) is to say 'Blow it out your arse' meaning just move on from an issue
"Root me with the rough end of a pineapple" is an extended version of "fuck me dead."
The longest and best fast food shops in Australia were the Fish and Chip shops, and the Delli's for a pie or pasty. Fish and chip shops use to be a just about every corner. Back in the days of the Greek and Italian immigrants. Most are gone now.
I appreciate the fact you didn’t pull back on the swear words or try to bleep them out, good on you :)
There are a lot of old saying that have fallen out of use. You still hear them in the country every now and again. Like "holly snappen duck shit"(im quite surprised) or I went for a "fang", or "fang it" (put the foot down). My wifes uncle, whos a farmer in Western Victoria still says "my giddy aunt" or "strike me pink" when he's surprised.
And the other oldies here may remember asking a parent what something was and them answering "a wigwam for a goose's bridle" ( i.e. none of your business, don't ask)
There was also one about grinding smoke but I just cant quite get it to come back to me
@@voxac30withstrat Sounds like one of those apprentice "jokes", eg go out the back for a long weight, get the striped paint, etc.
Exactly! My mum said that to us when we where only knee high to a grass hopper. I'm 67 and she's in Heaven ❤
I remember that one well. By the time you tried to work out why a goose would need a bridle (and why such a thing would be kept in a wigwam) you would have forgotten your question. Used by older family members when a child overheard adult talk and asked awkward questions.
Put some jam on ya nose.. stickybeak!!
One of my favourites is "it's windy enough to blow a dog off a chain".
It was that windy the birds were flying backwards
It's so windy I seen a chook lay the lay the same egg three times.
Windy enough to blow the milk out of your coffee is one I heard recently.
That’s a new one and I’m a 77 year old Aussie!
Another that I hadn’t heard before “ ripped off like a Band-Aid “. Isn’t that wonderful?
Oh how I love our irreverent Aussie humour. Not even clever Pommy humour comes close.
Or
Scare a bulldog off a meat truck.
Meaning the person is ugly.
I once knew an American who loved the term 'sticky-beak', referring to a bird that would stick its beak into something looking for something to eat, or just out of curiosity. A person who was a sticky-beak was someone who would stick their nose into things that weren't their business.
What are you doing?
Building a birdcage!
Why?
Planning to catch me a stickybeak!
she's apples means she's all good. Mad as a cut snake comes from early settlers and farmers. ploughing sometimes wounds snakes and they writhe around like crazy till they work out there not under attack
In rural parlance, "cut" means to castrate. Hence a cut snake is a castrated snake, ie not happy.
@@malcolmmcgregor7966
A castrated snake? Who's castrating snakes?
(The explanation involving a wounded snake is much more likely.)
Definitely the original explanation! Kaitlin's version sounds like it might be a newer meaning but I know the phrase as being extremely angry!
Never heard she's apples til recently on these types of videos never heard anyone actually say it around me🤷♀️. I hear she'll be right or it's all good all the time though.
@@Teagirl009 +Perhaps you are younger than me, I recall that often from my childhood...73 this year 😊😊😊😊😊😊
Up here in Darwin, you’ll sometimes hear someone saying “I’ll take the foot falcon” - meaning they’ll walk to a place, instead of driving there - perhaps in a Ford Falcon.
We'll take Shanks's pony
I’m pretty sure shanks’s pony doesn’t have an Aussie origin, but I could be wrong. I think I’ve only heard my Mum & aunts (daughters of cockney immigrants) use it.
And now you.
We have one like this in German: those shopping bags on wheels that old ladies like to pull ... "Heel Porsches"...
Buckleys is an abbreviation from a store that used to be around called Buckleys and Nunn.
Aussies seem to keep coming up with new slang words and expressions all the time. Dunny budgies for blowflies is a good one. But I like" the hamster is dead but the wheel is still turning," used when someone has absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
Bin Chickens.
I love Bob's ya uncle..
And our ability to take out the word "Of" in the sentences Drank a bottla beer...grabed a cana beer.
I love 'Bob's your uncle'
@@rodhmu I recently heard someone do something rather un-Aussie and lengthen that one to "Roberts your mother's brother"
or "Robert's your aunty's live in lover" ;)
@@rodhmu When I was real little and anyone'd say, "Bob's your uncle," I would cry and say, "No! he's me DAD!" But I got a few people back when I was older and they'd ask "Where do you live?" I'd say, "I live at the Post Office." They'd say "Nah, where do you live, not where do you gettcha mail." I'd let them ask a cuppla more times and then sweetly say..."I actually DO live AT the South Post Office!"
@@arthurross8553 Like "being up a well-known tributary without a means of conveyance."
As an Aussie, it's my bloody right to use this language like I stole it!
And if you look at the long version, the spelling and sound is an absolute delight! That repetition of vowels and sounds.
"Roberts your mother's brother."
As the others correctly stated it refers to the flattened out posture ie. low to the ground (flat out on the ground) that you could imagine the proverbial lizard being in when it was low to the ground at a waterhole etc. having a drink.
It is a fun saying.
@KindaAustralian Do you know how Aussies can tell a plane is full of pohmmies? The engines are turned off and it's still whining.
...whining like an EH diff...... 😊
@@ozboomer_au My Purple EH Panel Van never whined.
There's no h in pommies
@@kevinbourke4038 So they're not Prisoners of His Majesty?
@@fryaduckdon’t worry about that guy; you’ve spelt it correctly and as a result, you’re showing your age!
When I was a kid, we played board games. Naturally there were arguments. When we got too loud we would hear "Quiet down, you're not playing for sheep stations!"
Every so often though we were playing "Squatter". That's a game where each player owns a sheep station. Of course, we would yell back "Yes we are!"
I like that one.
Unless you were playing Squatter...
'Kicking shit up a hill in a pair of thongs' is one of my favourites meaning its a challenging/unpleasant task that has messy consequences. I cringe at the imagery
I've heard quite a few 'Aussie-isms' in my 50 years of being, but one I'd never heard before was from a Victorian Biker staying at my Sister's Fiancé's house. We'd just finished a Sunday Roast for lunch and this bloke leans back and says "I'm as full as a fat lady's undies!"...I near on fell off my chair I was laughing so hard.
Oh my word. That is pure gold🤣
Full as a goog - goog is chicken wonder where that one comes from 😘💥
Add to that “full as a meat inspectors fridge”
"A Furphy" or tale is a classic WWI bit of slang. They were water carts manufactured by J Furphy and Sons of Shepparton, distinctive for the cast iron ends. In the Great War, they were used to provide water to the fighting men who would venture from the platoons to collect water, swap stories and like a Chinese whisper would get distorted with each retelling.
I've never heard that link between the stories and the tanks before - excellent!
That's how I know it to have come about too. The cast iron tank ends which can still be found on old farms have the words cast into them 'Good better best never let it rest until your good is better and your better best'
Other slang worth checking up is wower (sot of an old term for woke). The other being POM (Englishman usually). POM = Prisoner of Mother England, or I like the reference to a pommy granite - "useless and full of pips". @@BushTerrors
On the Furphy ends, we have a couple on our farm c1900, what is on them defines the period when they were made.@@sevysnape
The army has a furphy water cart at the front of the hq of the “home of the soldier” Kapooka where all recruits are trained. With a brass plaque explaining this
"As mad as a cut snake" means being so angry you're out of your mind.
And a lot of these are used in New Zealand too. Cousin stuff!
Chur chur!
One that I haven’t heard for a long time is “As camp as a row of tents. I used to live in London and passed on a few of our sayings to an English work colleague. This one cracked her up…
Pink tents 😉
“Camp as a scout jamboree” too
My word, that takes me back. Gay didn’t exist. Lesbians were butch or femme. Can’t remember what the boys were called.
C.A.M.P. .. Campaign Against Moral Persecution. British in origin. Probably the oldest pro gay organization. Hence the word "camp" came to mean homosexual. End of history lesson.
"You can tell a south australian but you can't tell'em much"!!
You should watch Aussie dash cam videos on UA-cam, just to hear the expletives.
I was thinking the exact same thing!!
Ken oath mate
ridgy didge@@poida_de_bogan
You mean the training videos from the "Department of Motor Vehicle Communications"?
@@poida_de_bogan Its Far Ken Oath
HAHAHA f*ck me dead, its about the 3rd highest used phrase in my workshop!!!!
fuckaduck. Which was altered a bit on Hey Hey, back in the day, to Plucka. I was quite amused they did that on Telly
Just an aside on education institutions; college in the US means (presumably) a finishing secondary school or a university. In Australia we don't have elementary schools. It's just primary then secondary schools.
In fact most universities in the US are called "colleges". Here, fairly rare. Colleges are usually private secondary schools. Universities are just called that (not colleges, unless they are residential dormitories connected to a university interestingly enough), and Technical and Further Education colleges are just called TAFE (or tafe). TAFE has a broad curricula, but sometimes it is for fiirst and second year trade apprentices. Colleges are for nobs.
Some old Aussie phrases that came about from cricket (the sport, not the insect):
Pulling up stumps = quitting; leaving; going home; going to bed.
Stumps up = it's closing time/the party or event is over, it's now time for everyone to leave/go home.
Here 'til stumps = Here until closing time.
6pm until stumps = 6pm until late, usually when everyone has had enough and decided to go home of their own accord.
He got knocked for six = He was hit very hard.
That was left of field = that was unusual and unexpected.
No rest for the wicket? (I know some say this as "wicked", but wicket makes more sense to me. In the corporate world I used to hear "close of play", eg at the end of the day or an event. Also, elevenses.
'Out of left field' is a baseball term, lol.
And ...l'll let that go through to the keeper
@@VanillaMacaron551 no rest for the wicked is the original phrase, it's not even Aussie
Along the line of We're not her to F*ck spiders, you could use We're not here to put socks on centipedes.
I've never heard either of those! I like the centipede one, though.
I've never heard of those sayings and I'm an old Aussie.
@@SaintKimboI am with you. I had never heard of it until a saw a video of Margo Robbie (maybe it was Margo or perhaps another popular Australian actress a couple of years ago) in a you tube video give explanation of Australian slag and I was astounded to hear that one
Edit: to be honest I reckon it’s a recent invention and/or was a regional only thing and has only recently gone national
we're not here to milk mice
@@SaintKimbo same here
I first heard: "better than a poke in the eye with a hot stick" many years ago when I came here from Canada
It's often 'Well, that was better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick", especially after something quite pleasurable! 😂 (If you've ever been poked in the eye with a burnt/burning stick during a bushfire, it's actually unbelievably painfull.)
Better than a slap in the face with a cold fish.
@@gavinmcmillan6222……I like ‘better than a slap in the face with a dead mullet’, which could also mean a pongy fish, used for bait………
The full saying is "you've got two chances, Buckley's and none." Buckley was a convict who escaped and only survived by living with the Aborigines. Most escaped convicts died so Buckley surviving was a slim chance and Buckley was often replaced with slim.
He was buried a block away from us.
Correct from memory but I could be wrong, good job! 😎
I believe Buckley went through so many hardships and everything went wrong
The original phase seems to be "You've got Buckley's chance". The "You've got two chances, Buckley's and none" may be a punning development of the phrase in Melbourne where there was a famous department store mid 19th Century, Buckley's and Nunn.
And there was a department store in central Melbourne called Buckley and Nunn from 1851 to 1982.
There's a story of a phrase that only an Aussie could understand... In the very early 1980's, when three IBM executives had two days off mid-conference so flew from Sydney to Alice Springs, to see Uluru (Ayre's Rock then). Upon arrival at Alice Springs Airport to return, they were informed by the Airport everything (gate attendant, air controller, weatherman, etc.) "Sorry Ocker, The Fokker's Chocker".
For those not old enough - "Fokker" refers to a type of aircraft. A "Fokker Friendship".
i heard it was Wynyard in Tas, and they were Coke execs... 1970s
Not the Fokker Fairer, you joking aint ya
@@blakedeckard8127 Fokker F28 Fellowship
@@blakedeckard8127 As in "Fokker friendship; I need help"
An old one you mightn't have heard yet, or could be in a wild phrase vid, is "Dry as a nuns nasty" which can be used as a response if someone asks if you're thirsty or as a response if someone asks if you've had rain when a drought is going on (or just over summer)
Dry as a dead dingo's donger - rather thirsty
Heaps good - South Australian for a lot
Fill your boots - Army slang for carry-on (originally was piss yourself while on guard)
Get your shit in one sock - similar to above but get yourself sorted out
Blow the froth of a couple - have a beer
Crack a tinny - have a beer
Dirty bird - KFC or killed fried chook (chook is chicken)
Eat the crutch out of a low-flying duck - hungry
There are so many, Aussies slang everything, afternoon is Arvo, breakfast is brekki, child is ankle biter etc
Dry as a Nullabor puddle.
KFC…kooking for coconuts.
It's eat the CROTCH out of a low flying duck.
A Crutch is something you lean on, a Crotch is between your legs.
Dry as a nun's... maybe I shouldn't write out the last word, but I'll see you in the NT.
Dry as the dust on a dead dingo’s donger. Dry as a nuns nasty very popular
I like, 'It's as hard as pushing sh__ uphill with a pool cue.'
….. pointy stick
"Mad as a cut snake" can actually be used in two senses. First of all, as has been pointed out, a "cut snake" can refer to one which has injured - ie cut - during an attempt to kill it, and is therefore understandably very angry. Secondly though, the wild, unco-ordinated jerkings of a cut or injured snake readily suggest that it has gone mad as in insane. My father had a variation of it in which he would say that someone was "...as mad as a sunburnt snake" and anyone who has felt the pain of severe sunburn will understand how that fits.
If someone asks you if you want a drink you might answer “does the Pope shit in the woods?” It means - of course. It’s an ironic mix of “is the Pope Catholic” and “does a bear shit in the woods”.
Or, is a bear catholic!
Are the Kennedys gun shy?
I have a theory about the spiders. Someone working in a warehouse walks into a big cobweb and says "Fucken spiders!!!" and a quick thinking work mate says "We're not here to fuck spiders!"
This is a very likely story.
😂😂😂😂😂
I thought it came from soldiers in Vietnam “ why are we here?” , “ well we’re not here to f**k spiders. Get on with it.”
One of my favourites is - full as a nurse with a runny nose. You can always substitute air hostess, (or any other female profession that has a reputation for being rogered more than an army radio), for nurse.
"as popular as a pork chop in a synagogue"
As a pork chop at a Jewish picnic
Context is important!
or something 'went down like a french kiss at a family funeral'
Pork chop in a a synogogue: Heard that in South Africa as well.
Number 9, never heard that before. Must be a regional thing ? 🤷🏻♂️
You hit the nail on the head there! There is so many sayings, they are all good 😂
Another one you may or may not have heard…
‘Not happy Jan!!’
If someone is more than a bit upset with someone or something. From a TV commercial where Jan was the employee and the boss was not excited about something she had done.
I have a very vague recollection that Jan may have forgotten to put the boss's business in the Yellow Pages.
@@purplerain2314seconded. Jan was the secretary - sorry "personal assistant to the chief executive". Telecom Australia (or maybe Telstra) ad.
The irony about Buckleys Chance was it comes from a convict who actually made it!! (Escaped and lived with a 1st Nation mob) even though it was against the odds.
Buckleys & Nunn was a old popular department store in Melbourne. The 2 words were combined for the saying "You got 2 chances, Buckleys and NONE"
@@AnthonyD-s1x 100% correct and with the metaphor as well
@@AnthonyD-s1xyes, that’s the reason I heard. I hadn’t heard the first explanation.
@AnthonyD-s1x Yep, it originated abit like rhyming slang, Buckleys and Nunn standing in for none, then just shortened to Buckleys
"A sandwich short of a picnic", "It's cold enough to freeze the nuts off a tractor".
I used to work with a guy who said "A few ants short of a picnic" - kind of like that one
...a few roos loose in the top paddock..
Yeah good one. A sandwich short of a picnic would be almost a daily from me. Also it's so cold it will freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Don't know the origin or what a brass monkey is but i don't give a hoot. I use it anyway.
It's got a snowballs chance in hades........= no hope 😮
@@aussie_al I read that a brass monkey was a frame to store cannon balls, and if it got cold enough presumably they would contract enough to fall off. Or something.
Quite enjoyed hearing these reflected back. In respect of using Buckley’s, I use “You’ve got three chances mate”, and if a response is required, answer “None, Buckley’s, and sweet FA”
Just like there is 3 sorts of people in this world, those that can count, and those that can't....👍👌🇦🇺
58 years Aussie and never heard the spider one
A classic
73 years old - never heard that one either!
66yo....me neither.
What about ‘we’re not here to put socks on centipedes’? 😂
59 here. Never heard it. Could be state/provincial.
My father used to say, during my childhood, that an overly dramatic person was 'carrying on like a two-bob watch'. In the days before decimal currency arrived here in 1966, a bob was a shilling; a watch that cost only two shillings was therefore wholly unreliable.
I must admit, I'd never myself heard 'Macca's run' or the reference to sexual assaults upon arachnids. And I was born here.
Also silly as a two bob watch
I've never used it but would instantly know what it meant - the vitals version of a beer run.
The bob carried on through current currency as a bob became 10 cents and 2 bob was 20 cents as a kid not long after the currency change the scouts still done "bob a job" going house to house to do jobs for donations, bet kids don't get sent out like that anymore.
Naa a Rock Spider is a thing, usually penned up in the Dog yard of a prison....
As mad as a two-bob watch.
I miss "he shot through like a Bondi tram" common when I was a kid....
Another one is "You're fucking this cat, I'm just holding its tail", meaning this is your responsibility, not mine, or you're in charge, don't ask me. Also a song by White Knuckle Fever...
This one is gold!
@@BushTerrors Can be shortened to I am only holding the legs
Alternative. "Because I'm getting the scratches" Means "I'm responsible. Stop interfering.
The term "mad as cut snake" means the guy is super pissed (VERY angry). It has nothing to do with being insane or crazy.
Exactly
Agreed, I use it when someone is angry. A snake that has been cut is a pretty angry snake.😂😂
yes, it is not MAD as in Crazy, it is most definitely MAD as in Angry.
It can be both!!
Yeah-nah, it also means mental. Pissed means drunk btw.
"Sweating like a dog in a Chinese restaurant." It's funny because dogs can't sweat.
SO HUNGRY I could eat the crutch out of a Low Flying Duck
* crotch
*crotch.
Learning Australian vernacular ensures being 'one of the bunch', regardless of color, shape, or religion. Thank you for sharing😍✨
Colour*
Chock a Block it comes from the use of wooden blocks /wedge that were used to stop cars / planes from moving when they were stationery - thus chock a block means to stop something which is a play on words to mean something is tightly packed and there is no room to move
Mad as a cut snake: it is not MAD as in Crazy, it is most definitely MAD as in Angry.
going off like a frog in a sock
Anyone that's swung a scythe clearing scrub and encountered them will attest to the accuracy of the saying. They get very pissed off when you take a swing at or nick them with a scythe. Sometimes snakes can also survive for a time going through reach or flat deck mowers attached to tractors clearing roadsides..
Australian here. I only know it in the same context as her ie it means full on crazy. That's how we were brought up using it.
@@rainbows_trees_clouds_dais1766 I think the variations to meaning at least to some degree may come down to a city vs rural thing.
@@erroneouscodeok. Maybe. My Mum's family are rural (she's my language influencer, not my Dad). I grew up in a regional coastal city in Qld. So, if mine is rural... mine is the same interpretation as her in Sydney? I dont get the rural/city explanation - haha. Rural people - as in outback sheep and cattle - I know would all use Mad as a Cut Snake in same way as I understand. I definitely don't use in conversation, but these people do when they're telling stories or describing people. Interesting. Maybe QLD and NSW use it the same way?
Learning the vernacular of Australian's lexicon is guaranteed to make you 'one of the bunch', whatever colour, shape, or religious persuasion you might be. If someone says "strueth, ya got Buckley's mate", I know they're dinkum. 🇦🇺
well... lol.... means they're 'aving a go, mate.
Haven't heard 'Struth for a long while or "Fair dinkum' or even "Dead set"
@@voxac30withstrat Here and there. It comes and goes.
Strewth. Mate.
@@voxac30withstrat Not letting "dead set" die. Boomertastic.
My all time fave is. and always will be, when you think someone is telling you BS. Dont come the raw prawn with me mate. which i try to translate into every language i can. It bamboozles every one.
So funny hearing Kaitlyn saying "Fuck" over and over.... 🤣 #Straya
Our girl is becoming a bad mouthed Aussie Sheila! Love it❤️
She's giving it a fair crack!!
She keeps it up, and we might even think she's fair dinkum...
"We're not here to f*** spiders" - one of my favourite lesser-known sayings.
I’ve never heard that saying in 52 years of living on the West Coast of Oz..must be an Eastern states job! Learn something everyday👌
@@version7144 It's not that common in the east, either. Ironically, I learned the saying from my then-girlfriend from South Africa.
@@version7144 I never heard it in before, im in Vic
@@version7144 I live in Perth. It's been around for 50+ years. Attributed to the SAS, who's base is in Perth. I'm surprised you haven't heard it.
Pakapoo ticket. When I was a boy with untidy bedroom, my Dad used say "your room looks like a Pakapoo ticket".
I didn't know the origin, but in the context I knew what he meant, and it sounded bad.
Apparently during the gold rush days, the Chinese played a game called Pakapoo, that they gambled on and it involved lots of tickets/dockets covered with unintelligible Chinese characters, dropped everywhere.
My all time fave has to be “Flash as a rat with a gold tooth.” Which means you’re “Tarted up” or “got your good clobber on” or your all dressed up and groomed. Well as best as you can anyway.
Or “ mutton dressed as lamb “ 😂
@@roshee5573 that more refers to an older person (usually a woman) trying to pass themselves off as looking a lot younger - usually with heaps of make-up and clothes that don't really suit their age
Flash as michele Jackson with two white gloves...🤔😂😎🇦🇺👌
I thought it was more derisive like a used car salesman who is too slick. He's flash as a rat with a gold tooth. He's a rat but he's got bling going on
Paul Hogan used Flash as a Rat with a Gold Tooth.. but I think he got it off Johnny Garfield.
Mad as a cut snake does not mean the person is mad or has a few loose screws, it means they are pissed as, in other words they are very very angry!
My take on this is: A cut snake behaves in a very hostile manner, i.e. it is mad. But the alternate meaning of 'mad' is the one signified in this usage (I.e, insane), with the connection being the magnitude of the mad, which is denoted as very significant in the first usage. As an example, multiple miggs was as mad as a cut snake.
@@isomorph7954 It's like "Don't f*ck with him he's as mad as a cut snake"
I think it can mean crazy or angry, but both to the point where the individual is dangerous to be around.
Not sure why this one is hard to figure out for the video creator: if a snake was cut with a knife, it would mightily pissed off.
I worked in aged care and one of my favourite sayings was “as full as the family Poe “ when Aussies only had outdoor dunnies at night the would often share a family pottie - Poe and empty it in the morning.
In a white collar concept, I have heard and used with my boss "I can't do the work because I am flat out like a lizard drinking" Boss: "We're are not here to fuck spiders", Me "Fuck me dead, she'll be right".
I must be in the wrong job because I never heard such things
@@xpusostomos Get a job breeding spiders.
Would need to hear intonation to fully understand that exchange, but yes, it's credible.
Pretty sure I've heard them all I've heard them all in the one sentence