A dictionary of Australian colloquialisms

Wilkes, G. A.

Reference

Fontana/Collins

In the past decade there has been a tremendous growth of interest in the literature of British Commonwealth countries, yet the standard histories of English literature have never given more than passing attention - if any - to works produced outside Britain and the United States. This new series, inaugurated with the volume on Australia and New Zealand described below, has been initiated to fill a longstanding need; future volumes will survey the literatures of Canada, the Caribbean countries, Africa, and Asia.

The Literatures of the British Commonwealth: Australia and New Zealand

Literature & Fiction

Reid, John Calvin

History & Criticism

Pennsylvania State Univ Pr

Now available in a fourth, revised, and greatly expanded edition, A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms records the ingenuity of the Australian vernacular and provides a unique insight into Australian life and culture. This well-known dictionary, first published in 1978, offers the first and the most recent colloquial coinages. Words and idioms are drawn from a wide range of historical and contemporary sources--chiefly newspapers, magazines and novels--and each entry is shown in context, with origins and derivations.

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Sydney University Press

On its first publication in 1978 this dictionary quickly became established as a standard reference work in its field; frequently cited in Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and appealed to in arguments about Australian usage. In this expanded edition there are over a thousand revised entries and almost a thousand new entries. Two appendices have also been added.

Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms

Dictionaries & Thesauruses

Sydney Univ Pr

About the only contact average Americans have had with Australian slang is the well-known television commercial that promises to "put another shrimp on the barbie" if they spend their next vacation "Down Under." Those that do eventually visit Australia will quickly find an indigenous patois incredibly rich and amusing, drawing on everything from American English to the languages of its native peoples. And readers of A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms will learn not only that "barbie" means barbecue, but that "Down Under" is rarely used by Australians themselves. The last printed use of the term that G.A. Wilkes cites in this immensely entertaining guide is a blurb in the Weekend Australian that describes American astronauts cruising high above a Canberra tracking station announcing "We have a little Slim Dusty and Waltzing Matilda for the Australians down under." Now available for the first time in the U.S., the new edition of A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms adds almost 1,000 new entries, as well as over 1,000 revised ones. All of the entries are supported by numerous citations showing how the words are used, and special attention is payed to origins and derivations. Americans will be interested to learn that many of Australia's colloquialisms have their provenance in American slang (the California gold rush of the 1850s having had a particularly powerful effect), and that some of our most common expressions have Australian roots. "To knock," meaning "to disparage," for example, while widely used throughout the English-speaking world, was first recorded in Australia in 1892, and not in America until four years later. As one might expect, many Australianisms were originally English, some of them dating from the first arrivals of convicts in the eighteenth century. A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms shows how this argot of thieves often passed to general use, with words like "skinner," meaning a betting coup in racing, remaining current. The humorous expression "If it was raining pea soup, he'd be left with a fork" can be traced to a proverb of seventeenth-century England, and the Australian sense of "plant" as "conceal" can be found as far back as Shakespeare. Certainly the traveler planning a journey to Australia will find this dictionary an immense help. But above all, this is a book meant to be read, not simply referred to. Anyone interested in language in general and the vibrancy and flux of English in particular will spend many pleasant hours pouring over this book.

A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Fontana

Exploring Australian English

ABC Books for the Australian Broadcasting Corp

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