More gems from Australia's rich vocabulary, being eroded on a daily basis.If you are surprised, don't be content with a mere "Goodness me", try any of the following:
Stiffen the wombats!
Stuff me with the rough end of a pineapple!
Wouldn't that rot your socks!
Wouldn't that blow a hole in your nightie!
Cripey crows!
Well I'll be a monkey's uncle!
thanks again, Anaglyph
9 comments:
I'll stiffen your wombat if you're not careful!
I've never heard the phrase "stiffen the wombats," but I can't wait to use it in conversation.
A quick question on the second one: Which end of the pineapple ISN'T rough?
angryman: Careless is my middle name.
phoebefay: Some of the language in the book I've heard - though, sadly, less & less frequently these days - some is new to me.
Our lamented former Prime Minister Paul Keating had a brilliant line in invective. We realised just how much we'd been missing him when he popped up recently in a radio interview and called our currrent prime minister John Howard "the little desiccated coconut" and the treasurer Peter Costello "all tip and no iceberg". Sigh.
Whens th las time you had th hole in yer nightie blowd?
joey: Don't come the raw prawn with me.
HAHAHAHAHA!
DANG! You just out-naughtied me!
Monkey's Uncle we have here in the states, the others I had not heard before.
I'm picturing a pineapple and know which end I would -not- want to be stuffed with, if it came down to a choice.
Ouch.
My wife keeps using the expression "whatever blows your dress up". I think it's a Connecticut thing which corresponds to blowing a hole in someone's nightie.
Here in Massachusetts we use the word "wicked" to mean "really" in a positive sense, as in "wicked cool!" and "wicked awesome!" or simply "that's just wicked!!"
In Aboriginal English 'deadly' is used the same way as your 'wicked'. I took a little friend to a tour for children of the Aboriginal Art section of the NSW Art Gallery. The tour was led by a fruit bat, and we had to do a bit of fruit bat dreaming dance. The fruit bat said I was a "proper deadly dancer" - high praise which makes me shiver with pride to this day.
"All tip and no iceberg." I've been chuckling over that for the last five minutes.
I suppose it's analogous to the Texas phrase "All hat and no cattle." Both phrases seem to apply to both our current leaders!
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