D'vorahDavida
Yetzirah

Eskie
Chook
Sangers

I have figured out arvo and breakie but wonder why so MANY nicknames in Aussie dialect ? Any answers to that ?

Oik
Tickety boo
Artex
Cherry squishee
Wanky
These are VERY obscure words to me! I am consumed with curiosity !
Your muddled Yankee friend.

From Bookworm:

Okay, let's start with eskie: it's a portable cooler you take out with you to keep drinks and meats cool, you pack it with ice and all the necessary things you'll need while you're out. An eskie is especially useful when going to a barbie or a picnic because it also doubles as a seat.

A chook is a chicken, any variety, cooked or alive.

A sanger is what a lot of Aussies call sandwiches, but I've also heard sambo.

I have no idea why we call most of these things the way we do, but Aussies tend to shorten everything as well. That's why we'll talk about the tellie, pressies at Christmas (some will even call it Chrissie), taking the dog for a walkie and other silly stuff like that. Such as place names. Why go to all the trouble of saying the word Fremantle, when everyone will know what you mean when you say Freo, and so on.

I guess we're basically lazy, or perhaps we're just so laid back we can't be bothered speaking with the correct English. Esky was a brand name, as far as I know, of a cooler. Hope this helps. ;-)

From: RealmOfRachel:

Unhand me Yankee!!! Okay here goes an oik is an unpleasant uneducated person.

Tickety boo is Scottish slang it's just a phrase that means everything is going well, I think it might have originated from the phrase everything's ticking over nicely.

Artex is a brand name for a paint effect, all it is, is a pattern made in plaster used on ceilings or walls (it's a very 80's thing and ugly beyond belief.)

Chery Squishee- is an american thing it's a drink made out of syrup and crushed ice. We call them Slush puppies over here but I was just borrowing it as a reference to the TV show the Simpsons. The Indian clerk in the Simpsons always asks people if they would like a squishee...

Wanky- derived from a swear word, wank itself is a slang word for masturbation but most of the time over here we don't use it in this sense; if someone is a wanker he is annoying and we strongly dislike them. If it's an inanimate object we dislike; it's wank, which leads us to wanky which I use all the time to express my displeasure, in much the same way that people might say something is sh!t.

Sorry to profane in your diary, but you did ask! So are you going to teach us some American words?

Rachel off to wash her mouth out

Yetzirah:

Thanks so much ! I feel totally enlightened. So let me see, is this sentence proper ?

We put our chook and sangers in the eskie and drove to Freo for the barbie in the arvo.

And.

This oik came over to remove the Artex from our ceiling. The wanker brought a cherry squishee with him and almost spilled it on my new carpet. But now he’s gone, the ceiling is a proper plain white and everything is tickety boo again.

I LIKE it ! A new language without learning all those troublesome new letters and things. Thank you VERY much !

I can’t for the life of me think what American English IS. Perhaps that is the language where everything is a brand name ??? Or the unfortunate “valley girl” speak that I scrupulously avoid.

“You know, like I was going, hey, like get off of my totally cool blue suede shoes.” OR . . . “I was like going, no WAY! Like there is no way I am going to go to the mall without my mom’s credit card ! “

This sort of drivel drives me nuts ! Although I THINK , “What is UP with that?.” Might fall into the valley girl lingo, I am not sure. I am rather fond of that one phrase.

Like, I totally have to go now.

Bye !