Australian to American English Dictionary
-crawler – allegation that a man is nice excessively. In Australian, it is considered to be a significant deficiency in a man if he commits that fault.
-fair-din-kum – true, genuine, authentic. You can say “he is fair-din-kum Aussie”. I lived in Australia for 8 years but I was never known as “fair-din-kum Aussie”. One explanation might be I only spoke American English, not Australian and there was a language barrier. Eventually though, I worked out how Australian works and this dictionary is fruit of that labor.
-Good Day – It can be substituted for good morning, good afternoon or good evening. The most important benefit of this phrase is speaker does not need to be aware what time of the day it is and it can be used 24/7. Some Australian thinkers have suggested that the phrase belongs in the category of Energy Savers in Australian language.
-Good-on-you – It is somewhat difficult to pin down exactly what it means. But the consensus among most linguists is it is meant as a form of sincere praise.
-mate – In American English, it usually means a sexual partner and it is used mostly for animals. But in Australian, it is something very different. It means platonic friendship and it is usually used only for men friends. If 2 mates should engage in intimate sexual contact, they no longer qualify to be mates and they are now known as poofs (for more information on poof, see the entry for it). This rule is usually applied vey strictly.
-poof – a gay man. One power of Australian language is the word leads directly to the results of syllogism about that issue; that is he is a poof. Therefore, he is bad. Some Australian thinkers have argued that the word ‘poof” also belongs in the category of Energy Savers in Australian language. But, so far, there does not seem to be a sufficiently strong consensus on this issue.
-WOG – In most English-speaking countries, it is usually meant as a derogatory slur against Asians. But in Australian usage, they liberalized its usage and it can be used against any person who is not of British descent. If someone calls a French or German man a WOG, it is considered to be correct usage in Australian language.
This writing was completed on June 7, 2024.