Inpidginous Vocab I

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too. Come on! In like Flynn!

revision:
IRON LUNG: WOULDN’T WORK IN AN IRON LUNG Extraordinarily lazy. The phrase derives from the artificial respirator that kept polio patients alive by ‘breathing’ for them in the days when up to ten thousand people annually were affected by poliomyelitis (‘infantile paralysis’) in Australia. When vaccinations became routine in the mid-1950s, the fear of polio disappeared. Barry Humphries commented in 1974: ‘Work! Brits couldn’t even spell it. Bloody poms couldn’t work in an iron lung’.
ICY POLE popsicle
INCESTON derogatory name for Launceston.

new words:
IGNORANUS (ig.nor.AY.nus) n. A person who is both stupid and extremely rude or obnoxious.
IN SILICO is an expression used to mean "performed on computer or via computer simulation." The phrase is coined in analogy to the Latin phrases in vivo and in vitro which are commonly used in biology (see also systems biology) and refer to experiments done in living organisms and outside of living organisms, respectively. Contrary to widespread belief, in silico does not mean anything in Latin. The proper Latin phrase would likely be in simulacro to describe experiments done on the likeness (simulacrum) or model of a phenomenon.
IMPERIAL OVERSTRETCH n. The extension of an empire beyond its ability to maintain or expand its military and economic commitments.
INCESTUOUS AMPLIFICATION n. The reinforcement of set beliefs among like-minded people, leading to miscalculations and errors in judgment.
IRRITABLE MALE SYNDROME n. Anger and irritableness in men caused by a sudden drop in testosterone levels, particularly when brought on by stress. Also: IMS.

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Inpidginous Vocab H

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too. Don't be a hoon!

revision:
HEAD LIKE A REVOLVING MALLEE ROOT insulting description of somenone with unruly hair: Got a head like a revolving mallee root.
HORSE BITE a sharp blow to the skin (usually someone else's bare legs) with a cupped hand. Compare camel bite, crow peck, monkey shine.
HOW'S YOUR MOTHER'S CHOOKS? It meant "hello how are you?" It was used by my grandfather who is in his 70's now. When meeting someone: So, how's your Mother's chooks?
HILLS HOIST The hills hoist is a rotary clothes line fitted with a hoist that is operated by a crown and pinion winding mechanism. In Australia Lance Hill is commonly thought to have invented the rotary clothes hoist, but he adapted the existing design in 1946 by including his own winding mechanism. The name hills hoist is used generically in Australia for any rotary clothes line.

new words:
HOME MEAL REPLACEMENT n. A full, cooked meal purchased at a grocery store or other food outlet
HOMEPRENEUR n. An entrepreneur who creates and manages a home-based business.
HURRIED CHILD SYNDROME (HUR.eed chyld SIN.drum, -drohm) n. A condition in which parents overschedule their children's lives, push them hard for academic success, and expect them to behave and react as miniature adults.
—hurried child n.
One symptom of the hurried child syndrome is forcing pre-school children to constantly take classes and perform other "enrichment" exercises to help them prepare for school. This is also called hothousing
HETEROFLEXIBLE (het.ur.oh.FLEKS.uh.bul) n. A heterosexual person who is open to relationships with people of the same sex.
HEDGEHOG CONCEPT (HEJ.hawg kon.sept) n. An idea or concept that, if done extremely well and to the exclusion of almost everything else, can help a person's career or a company's business achieve their full potential.
The fox knows a little about many things, but the hedgehog knows only one big thing very well. The fox is complex; the hedgehog simple. And the hedgehog wins. Research shows that breakthroughs require a simple, hedgehog-like understanding of : what a company can be the best in the world at, how its economics work best, and what best ignites the passions of its people. Breakthroughs happen when you get the hedgehog concept and become systematic and consistent with it.

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Inpidginous Vocab G

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too.Give it a burl!

revision:
GOOG, AS FULL AS A : drunk. "Goog" is a variation of the northern English slangword "goggie" meaning an egg.
GET OFF AT REDFERN coitus interruptus, stopping sex before ejaculation: Even though the O'Conners have 7 kids, they still use getting off at Redfern as a form of contraception.
GALAH The word galah is a borrowing into Australian English from the Aboriginal Yuwaalaraay language of northern New South Wales. In early records it is variously spelt as galar, gillar, gulah, etc. It is first recorded in 1862 in J. McKinlay's Journal of Exploration in the Interior of Australia: `A vast number of gulahs, curellas, macaws... here'. The bird referred to is the grey-backed, pink-breasted cockatoo Eolophus roseicapillus, occurring in all parts of Australia except the extreme north-east and south-west. It is also known as the red-breasted cockatoo and rose-breasted cockatoo.
Some early settlers use the galah as food. In 1902 the Truth newspaper reports: 'The sunburnt residents of at that God-forsaken outpost of civilisation were subsisting on stewed galah and curried crow'. Some writers report that galah pie was a popular outback dish.
The galah, which usually appears in a large flock, has a raucous call, and it was perhaps this trait which produced the term galah session for a period allocated for private conversation, especially between women on isolated stations, over an outback radio network. F. Flynn in Northern Gateway (1963) writes: 'The women's radio hour, held regularly night and morning and referred to everywhere as the 'Galah Session'. It is a special time set aside for lonely station women to chat on whatever subject they like'. More generally, a galah session is 'a long chat' - A. Garve, Boomerang (1969): 'For hours the three men chatted... It was Dawes who said at last, "I reckon this galah session's gone on long enough".'
Very commonly in Australian English galah is used to refer to a fool or idiot.
GUERNSEY Guernsey is the second largest of the Channel Islands. The name is used attributively to designate things found in or associated with Guernsey. Thus the term Guernsey cow for an animal of a breed of usually brown and white dairy cattle that originated in Guernsey.
In the early nineteenth century the term Guernsey shirt arose for `a close-fitting woollen sweater, especially one worn by sailors'. During the gold rushes in Australia in the mid nineteenth century, in a specialisation of this sense, the term guernsey was used to describe a kind of shirt worn by gold-miners:
From the football meaning there arose the phrase to get a guernsey or be given a guernsey, meaning to win selection for a sporting team. In a widening of this sense, the phrase came to mean 'to win selection, recognition, approbation', and is commonly used in non-sporting contexts:

new words:
GARAGE MAHAL n. A large or opulent garage or parking structure. Also: garage mahal, garage-mahal
GENERTION D n. The generation that has grown up with and is completely at home with digital devices and digital culture.
GOLDEN BUNGEE noun. A lucrative package paid to an executive that includes severance pay for leaving the company and cash, options, or some other incentive to remain associated with the company.
GREY NOMAD A retired person who travels extensively within Australia, esp. by campervan, caravan or motor home. Grey nomads generally travel with no particular schedule or date to return to their normal place of residence. ‘They’re back —thousands of them—trailing their Jaycos and Sunliners across the Tweed to squander their kids' inheritance on a fold-up chair next to a breezy Queensland beach. The grey nomad is now a feature of the natural world, like the movement of whales whose path they shadow up and down the east coast every winter.’ (Courier-Mail 19 July 2005). The grey nomad is a product of the Baby Boomer generation. The term was first recorded 1995

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Inpidginous Vocab F

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too. Fair suck of the sauce bottle!

revision:
FAIRY BREAD Slices of white bread cut into triangles, buttered and sprinkled with tiny, coloured sugar balls called ‘hundreds and thousands’. Fairy bread is frequently served at children’s parties in Australia. The name possibly comes from the poem ‘Fairy Bread’ in Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verse, published in 1885.
FLAT OUT LIKE A LIZARD DRINKING Extremely busy, at top speed. This is word play on two different meanings of the standard English ‘flat out’. The literal sense is to lie fully stretched out (like a lizard), and the figurative sense means as fast as possible. The phrase also alludes to the rapid tongue-movement of a drinking lizard. It is sometimes shortened, as in ‘we’re flat out like a lizard trying to meet the deadline’.
FREMANTLE DOCTOR A cool sea breeze which brings relief on a hot summer’s day. A wind blowing inland late in the day is a welcome feature of the climate in Western Australia’s south-west. Like Fremantle, many towns have given it a local name. Albany, Geraldton, Esperance, Eucla and Perth all have their doctor, a reference to the ‘healing’ effect of the breeze.
FEMALE FACTORY A prison for women convicts. The first female factory was established in 1804 at Parramatta in New South Wales. It was a place of punishment, a labour and marriage agency for the colony, and a profit-making textiles factory where women made convict clothing and blankets. There were eight other female factories in the Australian convict settlements.

new words:
FLOORTIME n. A therapeutic or parenting technique in which an adult engages in creative play with a child, often including getting down on the floor with the child. FOODCOURT MULTICULTURALISM (FOOD.cort mul.tee.KUL.chur.uh.liz.um) n. The practice of enjoying the attributes of several cultures other than one's own in a superficial and temporary way.
FUZZY MATH n. Mathematics education that de-emphasizes memorization and rote learning in favor of a cooperative approach to solving problems.
FUNCTIONAL FOOD refers to foods and their components that may provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition. Functional foods do more than meet minimum daily nutrient requirements—they also can play a role in reducing the risk of disease and promoting good health. Biologically active components in functional foods impart health benefits or desirable physiological effects.

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Inpidginous Vocab E

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too. effing oath huh?

revision:
EARBASHING nagging, non-stop chatter
ESKY large insulated food/drink container for picnics, barbecues etc
ELBUM Album. Melbournians seem to use this all the time. Even on the ABC!
ELASTIC SKIPPY the same schoolyard girl's game as "elastics".
ELEVENSES morning tea break - particularly at primary school: I'll meet you at elevenses.
ESKIMO PIE slab of icecream between two wafers sold at picture theatres and deli's in 50's & 60's in SA according to one contributor e.g.Two eskimo pies and two orange drinks please.
EMU BOB the picking up of litter from an area, usually by an organised group of people, often as a school punishment.

new words:
EMMAPEELER noun. A black, skin-tight, body suit, similar to the one often worn by the character Emma Peel in the sixties television series The Avengers.
EAT WHAT YOU KILL idiom. The business philosophy that a person who accomplishes something should get the full financial benefit that results from that accomplishment.
EBONICS noun. Ebony + phonics. Another word for Black English, which the American Speech Language and Hearing Association now recognizes as a separate dialect with its own syntax and vocabulary.
ECO-PORN n. A corporate advertisement that extols the company's environmental record or policies. e.g.those beautiful television ads featuring some natural jewel, during which an announcer with a four-balls voice tells us how much some cigarette manufacturer or some other gross polluter is doing to keep our precious earth green.
EMOTIONAL CORRECTNESS noun. Feelings or sentiments deemed to be socially acceptable. e.g. Under the new and terrorizing code of e.c., Americans risk complete banishment from polite society if they do not wholeheartedly join in each national day of mourning or celebration as decreed by the media.
Tell us about it!

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Inpidginous Vocab D

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too. ciloo DAAAH

revision:
DUCKS ON THE POND look out!female approaching! A warning cry from a male as a signal to other men that a woman is approaching a traditionally all-male environment. It is a reminder that the men should modify their language and behaviour to avoid giving offence. It was first used in shearing sheds, but is now heard in other places, especially in a pub.
DAG way out west a dag is a nebech. RATTLE YOUR DAGS hurry up, get a move on. Dags are clumps of matted wool and dung which hang around a sheep’s rear end. When a ‘daggy’ sheep runs, the dried dags knock together to make a rattling sound. The word dag (originally daglock) was a British dialect word that was borrowed into mainstream Australian English in the late nineteenth century.
DIDGERIDOO the didgeridoo is a wind instrument that was originally found only in Arnhem Land in northern Australia. It is a long, wooden, tubular instrument that produces a low-pitched, resonant sound with complex, rhythmic patterns but little tonal variation.
In popular understanding most Australians probably believe that this is an Aboriginal word. Indeed, the 1988 edition of The Australian National Dictionary attributed it to the Yolngu language of northern Queensland. Subsequent research has cast doubt on this etymology, and in 1990 the following statement was made in Australian Aboriginal Words in English: 'Although it has been suggested that this must be a borrowing from an Australian language it is not one. The name probably evolved from white people's ad hoc imitation of the sound of the instrument'.
This argument is supported by the two earliest citations:
1919 Huon Times (Franklin): 'The nigger crew is making merry with the Diridgery doo and the eternal ya-ya-ya ye-ye-ye cry'.
1919 Smith's Weekly (Sydney): 'The Northern Territory aborigines have an infernal - allegedly musical - instrument composed of two feet of hollow bamboo. It produces but one sound -'didjerry, didjerry, didjerry -' and so on ad infinitum'.

new words:
DOUBLE BAY TRACTOR a late model Range Rover seen driving around the suburbs. It has never seen any dirt, and the person driving it probably doesn't know how to engage the 4 wheel drive
DAY TRADER a stock trader who holds positions for a very short time (from minutes to hours) and makes numerous trades each day. Most trades are entered and closed out within the same day.
DESKFAST breakfast that is eaten at a desk, as at work.
DIRT ROAD noun. a frustratingly slow Web connection. "Geez, that GIF still hasn't loaded yet? The @#$%&! server must be on a dirt road."
DRINK THE KOOL-AID v. to become a firm believer in something; to accept an argument or philosophy wholeheartedly or blindly.
Example Citation:
One top executive named McMahon, the treasurer, was known for going around the company after he met with Skilling, Lay, and Fastow, and they directed him to do some bogus deal and say, 'Well, we've all got to go drink the Kool-Aid.'
William Lerach, quoted in Marie Brenner, "The Enron Wars," Vanity Fair, April, 2002
DRIVEWAY EFFECT n. a special quality exhibited by a radio program that causes listeners to stay in their cars after they have arrived home so they can hear the end of the program.

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Inpidginous Vocab C

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too. Lets C...

new words:
CTRL-ALT-DELETE idiom. A metaphoric mechanism with which one can reset, restart, or rethink something. —v. e.g. Wouldn't it be nice if whenever we messed up our life, we could simply press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and start all over again?
—"Let it out," The Indianapolis Star, September 8, 2003
CITIZEN JOURNALISM News and commentary from the public at large. Using wiki sites and blogs, anyone can contribute information about a current event. Also known as "collaborative citizen journalism" (CCJ), "grassroots media" and "personal publishing," the concept behind citizen journalism is that many volunteers help to ensure that the information is more accurate than when it is being reported from only one source.
CNN EFFECT The temporary shifting of consumer spending that occurs as a result of gripping news.
Consumer spending tends to slow during events such as the Persian Gulf War in 1991 or the terrorist raids in 2001 as people stay home glued to their televisions.
It is doubtful, however, that the CNN effect could change the overall direction of the economy. Most necessary goods will have to be purchased eventually. The only loss to the economy occurs in service-oriented venues, such as restaurants and movie theatres, which may never recover lost revenues
CHRISMUKKAH is a pop-culture neologism referring to the merging of the holidays of Christianity's Christmas and Judaism's Hanukkah as celebrated in interfaith households where one parent may be of Christian heritage and another parent of Jewish heritage. Or from two Jewish parents, where one may not be religious at all (having a desire to put up a Christmas tree) while the other is very religious causing Christmas and Hanukkah to cancel each other out into one blur of a gift giving holiday. The term has been used for many years by some in the Jewish community to comment on the commercialisation of Hanukkah and the dominance of the commercialised Christmas in American culture.
CHAIN SAW CONSULTANT noun. A consultant hired specifically to reduce employee headcount, thus allowing the company's top executives to remain blameless.

revision:
COMPO Workers' Compensation pay
CREAM(verb) defeat by a large margin
CUP OF TEA, A BEX AND A GOOD LIE DOWN: A joking term for a cure-all, the remedy for any problem. The phrase (now often with some variations) was originally the title of a 1960s Sydney theatrical revue. The cuppa, the Bex (an analgesic in powder form) and the lie down were supposed to be the suburban housewife’s solution to problems such as depression, anxiety, isolation and boredom. The expression is often used in political contexts—‘He called the ASEAN ambassadors in for a cup of tea, a Bex and a quick lie down’.
COCKY A farmer. In Australia there are cow cockies, cane cockies and wheat cockies. Cocky arose in the 1840s and is an abbreviation of cockatoo farmer. This was then a disparaging term for small-scale farmers, probably because of their habit of using a small area of land for a short time and then moving on, in the manner of cockatoos feeding.
CHARDONNAY SOCIALIST A derogatory label for a person who pays lip service to left-wing views while enjoying an affluent lifestyle. It is modelled on the British term, champagne socialist, which has a similar meaning. The term chardonnay socialist appeared in 1989, not long after the grape variety Chardonnay became extremely popular with Australian wine drinkers.

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Inpidginous Vocab B

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too.So take a B line...

revision:
BILL LAWRY Bottle opener or corkscrew (named after Australian cricket opener (opening bat)): Anyone got a Bill Lawry for the vino?
BLUE ARSED FLY To act in a hectic manner: I've been running around like a blue arsed fly.
BREAD AND DUCK UNDER THE TABLE all that was available to eat was bread: We would ask "What's for tea?" and dad would answer "Bread and duck under the table."

new words:
BAGONIZE verb. To wait anxiously for your suitcase to appear on the airport baggage carousel.
BAR-CODE HAIRSTYLE n. A style in which a man's last few strands of hair are combed across the top of his head, thus resembling a bar-code pattern
BOBO (BOH.boh) n. A person who combines affluence and a successful career with a preference for countercultural ideas and artifacts. Example Citation:
"Bobos talk like hippies but walk like yuppies, decrying materialism while indulging in all manner of luxuries."—Victoria Loe Hicks, "Vision of the future," The Dallas Morning News, March 19, 2001

hybrid:
BOOMERANG
1.A flat, curved, usually wooden missile configured so that when hurled it returns to the thrower.
2.A statement or course of action that backfires
Boomerangs developed as a refinement of carved throwing sticks (kylies) that were used as weapons, primarily for hunting. The oldest kylie found to date is one formed from a mammoth tusk. Discovered in Poland in 1987, its age has been carbondated at about 20,300 years. There is some evidence that boomerangs were developed in several cultural groups. For example, a boomerang-shaped object found in Germany was made of ash wood. Carbon-dated to an age of 2,400-2,800 years, it is preserved enough to allow archaeologists to reconstruct its entire shape. The replica has been thrown left-handed to produce a complete boomerang trajectory; however, the wing profiles were less than optimal, making it difficult to throw successfully. Evidence suggests that boomerangs may also have been developed in Egypt and India.
The oldest boomerang found in Australia dates to about 14,000 years ago. The origin of the word is uncertain, although it may derive from the cry "boom-my-row" ("return, stick") that British colonizers heard Dharuk tribesmen shout when throwing the instruments in 1788.
Two design components give the boomerang the capability of circular flight. One is the arrangement of the arms, and the other is the airfoil profile shape that allows the arms into wings. During flight, the boomerang spins rapidly (about 10 revolutions per second). The wing profiles create the same lift effect that makes airplanes fly. In addition, the spinning motion creates a gyroscopic precession, which pulls the boomerang into a circular path. A similar effect can be seen with a spinning top: if the top's axis is not quite vertical, the upper portion of the toy travels in a circle around the axis.
A Kylie is one of the Aboriginal words for the hunting stick used in warfare and for hunting animals. Instead of following a curved flight path, it flies in a straight line from the thrower. The word is perhaps an English corruption of a word meaning boomerang taken from one of the Western Desert languages, for example, the Warlpiri word karli.

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Inpidginous Vocab A

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too. Let's start from the very beginning. A very good place to start… Aa words and idioms

Revision:

A CUT LUNCH AND A WATER BAG Meaning a long way off; a good distance: How far is it? Oh, a cut lunch and a water bag away."

AKUBRA A shallow-crowned wide-brimmed hat, especially one made from felted rabbit fur. It is a significant feature of rural Australia, of politicians (especially urban-based politicians) travelling in the outback, and of expatriates who wish to emphasis their Australianness. Now a proprietary name, Akubra was first recorded in 1930. Its origin is unknown, but it is possibly from an Aboriginal language.

AVOCADO Fifty dollar note: "Would you have a spare avocado" for "Can I borrow $50"

AVAGO verb:- To attempt to do something (as in avago yer mug!!)

New words:

ACTORVIST (AK.tur.vist) n. An actor who is also an activist.
Although actor/activist combinations have been around since at least Hanoi Jane Fonda, the actorvist blend of the two terms looks like it only dates back to 1995.

ANUS ENVY n. A longing to emulate the behavior of obnoxious TV and radio personalities.

ALPHA EARNER (AL.fuh urn.ur) n. A wife who earns all or most of her household's income. They are women, they bring home the bacon and they are set to take over.

ALPHA GEEK n. The person with the most technological prowess in an office or department.

ALPHA MUM (AL.fuh mum) n. The dominant woman in a group of mothers.

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Inpidginous Vocab

Do you find yourself lapsing into pidgin from time to time? God knows how long we've been here, trying to eat from the tree of knowledge and then falling from grace or from the Anglosphere. It may be time to consider a bit of a vocab overhaul and on the other hand some revision too. This month in the spirit of the Anzacs...


Revision:
WWI Anzac Slang
COBBER, A mate, a friend
If you’re like me, years ago you heard that the word cobber originates from the Anzac’s stay in Palestine and is a corruption of the Hebrew word chaver. It seemed to make sense so I just accepted it on face value. Contrary to the generally accepted consensus there are certain academics who date the origins of the word somewhat further back, and the word snuck into our slang thanks to an east London convict sent to Tasmania who used the Yiddish/Hebrew word for a mate/comrade/pal-chaver.

other words with middle eastern origins:
BINT A young woman. From Arabic bint, daughter
BUCKSHEE Free, spare From Arabic/Hindustani baksheesh gratuity.
IGGRY Hurry up. From Arabic. The Australians named one particular crossing in Bullecourt Iggry Corner.

words from other inspirational sources:
BILLJIM Any Australian. A composite word formed from two popular Australian forenames of the time
AUSSIE, (AN) or an Australia A sufficiently severe injury to be shipped back to Australia
AXLE GREASE butter
BON Good, fine When off duty, men would often be found having a 'bon time' at the local estaminet. The opposite was non bon.
BONZER very, very good , expressing a superlative quality of something.
GALLIPOLI GALLOP, THE diarrhea
BEFORE YOUR NUMBER WAS DRY Expression used by more experienced soldiers to rookies as a form of put-down: "I was killing Germans before your number was dry" - i.e. before the ink on the junior soldier's enlistment papers was dry.
SHORT ARM INSPECTION medical inspection of the OR's private parts to look for cases of VD
SWEET FANNY ADAMS, S.F.A. Nothing at all. Originally nineteenth century naval slang for tinned cooked meat, from the notorious murder and dismemberment of a girl so named. The initials S.F.A. were, by the time of the Great War, also allocated to the expression Sweet Fuck-All, and Sweet Fanny Adams was a bowdlerized version of this phrase.
CANTEEN MEDALS Beer or food stains on the breast of a tunic

New Words:
Australian Military Slang
TURRET-HEAD Member of the Armoured Corps.
TURPS Any form of alcoholic beverage drank to excess.
SKIPPY BADGE Hat or beret badge insignia for the Royal Australian Regiment (Regular Army Infantry organisation)Skippy for the kangaroo in the centre of it.
ROCK SHOW A poorly organised operation or plan. For example, "What a rock show".
MORALE VAMPIRE Usually refers to an officer who is highly focused on his own goals and needs, showing little or no care for the welfare or needs of the soldiers under his command.
MANGO Term for Army Reservist. Green on the outside, yellow on the inside and too many of them give you the shits.
LOBSTER Refers to a Physical Training Instructor, usually meaning "Hard on the outside and head full of sh-t"
KOALA BEAR Refers to somebody who is generally considered a protected species and useless in the greater scheme of things. Usually accompanied by the phrase "Not to be exported or shot at"
GIGGLE-HAT Bush head dress.
GIGGLE-SUIT Bush clothes
GINGER BEERS Term used to describe a member of the Royal Australian Engineers Corps.
FRUIT SALAD Medal ribbons.
EATING IRONS Cutlery (mainly known in the army as KFS - knife, fork and spoon).
BEASTING To 'Beast' means to stand over or 'monster' a subordinate. The expression is more commonly used by officers. For example He copped a beasting off the Sergeant Major.
WANKING SPANNER Your prominent hand. E.g. "Stick your wanking spanner in the air if you ...".

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