Over 50 AUSSIE SLANG Words You Need to Know!

What do Australians wear on their feet? Why are "root" and "fanny" bad words in Australia? What's the difference between sick and crook? Some Aussie slang words can be really confusing to Americans who aren’t trained in Aussie English. I have a long list of over 50 Australian words you need to know especially as an American coming over, even if it's just for a short holiday. Let's learn Australian slang!

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[kelvinhill]

Technically we don’t buy food from a “tucker shop”. They are usually called a “tuck shop”. When you start to eat your tucker, someone might say “tuck in” which means “let’s eat”.

[smokeandquills]

As Aussies, we don’t realise just how much we say “reckon” and “heaps” until we go overseas!

[jefffromoz]

Being an Australian on holiday in Canada I found it amusing the Roots Clothing Company Tshirts with Roots Beaver on the front of the Tshirt a completly different meaning for an old Australian

[tolgahk]

When it comes to Servo, referring to Service Station, it comes from the days when most petrol stations also had an attached mechanic garage where by you could get your car "Serviced" i.e. oil change/mechanical work as well as filling up on petrol. Most petrol stations nowadays nowadays no longer have an attached mechanic garage but the nickname Servo has stuck around

[alyciasmith]

Words for emergency vehicles or personal might be something people should know (ambo, firie, etc)

[alankohn]

Just to make things a little more complicated a 'Tinnie' is also a slang term for a small aluminium boat the sort of thing you might go fishing out of the usually have a small 10 horsepower or less outboard on them. So you can chuck some tinnies in the tinny and be making sense.

[gregrtodd]

Nailed it, Kaitlyn! Just two more to add that have popped up in the last couple of years. "Rona" and "iso". As in "yeah mate, just got the 'Rona so I'll be in iso for the next week"

[Nick_fb]

The smoko is the place where you go to speak freely about work. Smokes sometimes involved.

[PlayerClarinet]

Australian schools sell food and snacks at tuck shops (or canteens), not 'tucker' shops.

[muffarroony]

I still use ' fairdinkem ' sometimes

[satihadadog]

Did you miss the word dunny? I know the cartoon Bluey helped introduce that word to a wider audience

[grandmothergoose]

A few others to add to the list:
Ciggie, durry, dart, coffin nail: all of which are slag words for a cigarette. Bumper: cigarette butt.
Although any kind of food can be called tucker, depending on where in Australia you are, a midday meal could be called either lunch or dinner. If it's called dinner, chances are the evening meal is called tea. If the midday meal is called lunch, chances are the evening meal is called dinner. However in some parts, the midday meal is called lunch and the evening meal is called tea and the word dinner is reserved for a fancy formal or romantic meal.
Fritz and Devon (a type of processed meat); potato cake, potato fritter, and potato scallop (sliced potato fried in batter), middy and pot (beer glass sizes) are some common ones that change names from place to place.
Some parts of Australia people end a lot of sentences and questions with the word "but", "too", or "at".
Lastly, if you're not born and raised Aussie, be very careful with using the word c*nt, because even with other words added to it (eg: sick c*nt) it can still be an insult or a compliment. Sticking with that same example, a sick c*nt is usually a compliment, for someone that's an awesome person, but with the right tone it can also be used as an insult as in someone that's "sick in the head" in the sense of depraved, disgusting of mind/thought. The one way that it's used that is always an insult and it's the worst insult in Australia, is to call someone a sh!t c*nt. No one wants to be a sh!t c*nt.

[sgtcrab]

You speak Strine very well. Pom or Pommy is often heard. Yank...an American (USA). Someone asked if I was Yank due to me different accent. I replied "How would you like it if I called you a Kiwi." He immediately said 'Sorry mate...Canadian!" Tradies include Chippies and Sparkies.

[dutchroll]

"Strewth!" is an older generation exclamation originating from "God's truth!" over a century ago. However back in those days expressing shock or surprise with "God's truth!" was considered swearing and was contracted to "strewth!" which made it a little less offensive for the period.

[afpwebworks]

Well done!!! You NAILED all the definitions. I bet the research for this video took you ages. You have even caught on to the notion that there are slang words that old people use, and some that the kids use and the words are moving about. I think once the parents catch on to a new word, the kids have to go and find another word for the same thing. When my boys were teenagers in the 90s, "totally sick" was the top rating value of 'awesome' or 'excellent' A movie would be "totally sick" if it was recommended highly. But as soon as I started using the term my boys stopped.

[davidbell]

it always surprises me that when yanks and pomms do these Aussie slang things, that they never include the word "bastard". in my younger days I remember reading somewhere that a a linguist at some university. had determined that Australia was the only country in the world where there was something like 45 ways to used the word bastard, only five of which were derogatory. It is all in the context and manner in which it is used.

[matthewbrown]

Living in the USA, I used slang or as it's officially known as "Strine". I used to just ask people questions at work & they looked lost. My co-worker called a drink-a-thon (we hit the bars) at the last minute & my co-worker said he would "grab his thongs" & meet us there. I had to explain the Aussie Version Of Thongs LOL.

[fier]

This one doesn't get used anymore but red head people were called BLUEY apparently it goes back to the 1900s. And one state calls a beer bottle an ECHO. In 1977 South Australia put a 5 cent bottle deposit. The name ECHO was used to conger up images of the bottle returning to the brewery.

[gregmccoy]

As a life long Aussie, I say well done and ripper job. I remember back decades ago when we pulled into the service station we actually use to get service, the attendant would fill up the car with petrol and check air (pressure)in the tyres, water and clean the windscreen and that was the service station, you would also hand him the money, they would run inside the shop do the sale and bring the change back out to you, days long gone. So that’s where Servo came from, we got servo service. But good job explaining Aussie talk.

[whitedrguy]

You could also add wombat, eats, roots and leaves.