The Tome of Tom - Aussie Lingo Out of Nowhere!
So I was walking back from a pizza place downtown with a friend on Friday night. It was pouring rain, but we were a bit drunk, and didn’t really care. It was raining hard enough for water to come pouring out of the storm drains. I told my friend that it looked like a bubber. Suddenly, a very confused look came across his face.
“The hell is a bubbler?”
Oh dammit to hell. I had accidentally slipped back into Aussie-lingo. When I moved here nine years ago, I still used words that made perfect sense in Australia, maybe something like jumper, but would confuse the hell out of my classmates. It was pretty embarrassing to sound like a weirdo in front of everybody, so I did my damnedest to keep myself from using ‘em in front of people.
I guess after a while, they sort of dropped out my vocabulary, but they still pop up from time to time. Usually it’s pretty random (I said esky a few times when I threw a cookout a few weekends ago), but I use ‘em with more frequency whenever I’m boozed up. Guess it’s easier to use words like bubbler when I’m less inhibited.
If I can orchestrate the trip back to Australia next year like I’m hoping to, maybe all this stuff’ll all come flooding back, which would be kind of awesome.
Oh, and for those that don’t know, a bubbler’s a drinking fountain.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
“Dodgy” is definitely “Shady” or more recently (25 and under) “Sketchy”. “Taking the Piss” is “Pulling my leg” or occasionally “pull the other one, it’s got bells on” which is the same thing but more elaborate.
NZ Slang to American; “Number Five Bailing Wire Approach” is “Ghetto Rig” or “Jimmy Rig” or “Jury Rig” depending on the age and ethnicity of the American.
Gaffer Tape becomes Duct Tape, and is worshiped by many as the patron saint of jimmy rigging and random acts of drunken stupidity (because who hasn’t tried to tape their roommate/friend/sibling to the ceiling one time or another).
Out of curiosity what is the Aus/NZ/Brit translation for something being “ghetto” or looking poorly built and of suspect origin? A vehicle that was probably built from the remains of other autos for instance, held together with bailing wire and duct/gaffer tape would definitely qualify as being “ghetto”. “Yeah, Tom’s new ride is pretty ghetto, I don’t think I’ll be asking him for a ride any time soon.”
Should we just fall back on “dodgy” for this one?
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December 9th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Yeah, I think I’d stick with “dodgy”. That or “hunk of junk”.
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