The Demise of Vibrancy in Aussie English

[red750]

"London fog" - Never lifts.

Wouldn't work in an iron lung. 

[old man emu]

9 hours ago, willedoo said:

One company I worked for had one of those dickheads who are always bragging about how good they are. He copped the nickname Ten Men.

That one has been modernised to FIGJAM

Fvck I'm Good. Just ask Me.

 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

 

Go amongst the under-25s and utter some of the above and note their responses. 

 

You'll get more bewildered side-to-side head movement than you'd see with a magpie listening for grubs in the grass.

[octave]

39 minutes ago, old man emu said:

You'll get more bewildered side-to-side head movement than you'd see with a magpie listening for grubs in the grass.

 And this also happens when older folks struggle to interpret the lingo of younger folks.  I also imagine that when we were younger our elders also thought they were so much better than us with our rock and roll etc.  

[facthunter]

"Motormouth" is descriptive.. BOOFHEAD very ancient one.. At one stage my nickname must have been "Trouble". I'd walk into head office and I'd hear "Here comes Trouble"..... Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Over here, there is JAFA.. Just Another F!in Aussie.

[facthunter]

We can only be insulted by people we  respect.  Nev

[red750]

There was a big dark skinned comedian on "Live at the Apollo" in London on TV last night talking about the new slang. He said he had previously worked as a doorman/bouncer. He said the younger generation referred to "going to the gym" as "banging gym". He said he was taken aback when one young dude asked if he had been banging gym. (Banging Jim?)

 

Another expression was "I will wet you", meaning "I will stab you".  He said he got all wrong one night when a punk stood up to him. He drew himself up to his 6 ft 3 in, took a deep breath, glared at him showing the whites of his eyes, and said "If you come back to this club I'll make you all wet."

[red750]

Here's one that cropped up in a news report:

 

PDQ

 

I know what it means, how many others do, without looking it up?

[pmccarthy]

I know what PDQ is. I could let you know on the strict QT.

[facthunter]

My wife was a QT.  Nev

[facthunter]

One Colonel Blimp type in PNG was called "THE RIM". (Big wheel with no Guts) .. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

I disagree that kids of today don’t use nicknames. Almost all my Aboriginal students had colourful names that everyone used, teachers included. Some names were family-based; kids had nicknames derived from their parent’s.

It was only around report-writing time that we used their official, white-fella names.

[octave]

I am not convinced that there has been a significant reduction in the use of slang or similes or the use of vibrant language.  slang and euphemisms has evolved overtime. The  older terms have not necessarily disappeared amongst the young, at least the ones I mix with. There are a whole lot of new words and phrases that were not of our time and unless we actually spend time with younger folks we are less likely know.    I spent a great deal teaching and working with younger people. On many occasions a younger folk you use terms I did not understand so I would ask for clarification and likewise in the other direction. 

Young young people I know do still use some of those older Aussie terms.    Even amongst people my age the knowledge of this kind of language is shaped by where you live and what you do for a living.  Having spent time in the military there are terms I use others my age do not understand.

 

A term I picked up from my son is "not here to f*ck spiders" as in "lets get on with it" or as a sarcastic answer to an obvious. question - "hello I'm the plumber" - "have you come to fix the pipes" - "well I have come to f spiders"  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

You've part answered something I wondered about. The F-27 had plastic easily removed hub caps on the yokes and pilot's used to send messages by placing notes there. One Used to say KL fuCK$ Spiders  This was in 1969 if that date/period helps..  Nev 

[nomadpete]

Such terms sometimes are a private joke only known to a few.

I once moved a large equipmant rack, and found "Monty f's pigs" scrawled on the wall behind. Years later I crossed paths with Monty.

"Oh that! It dates back to when I borrowed the boss's car. I hit a pig on the way home. Both pig and car were f'd"

[octave]

By the  way,   we are not here to F*ck spiders" is the tittle an Australian film    We're Not Here to Fuck Spiders (2020)                                                             '

[facthunter]

I imagine you'd do it with a hammer.  Is the film any good?   On Netflix? . Nev

[octave]

3 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Is the film any good?   On Netflix?

 

Haven't seen it but whilst it gets 7.5 out of 10 on IMDB from the trailer it  looks a little grim to me so I think I will give it a miss. 

[red750]

Back to PDQ. The former press secretary to the Queen, Dickie Arbiter, claims he was accused by inference of being part of the palace press group who publish derogatory stories about the Duke of Sussex, in his tell-all book. He has demanded a retraction by the publisher PDQ - pretty damned quick.

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

Almost all my Aboriginal students had colourful names that everyone used,

I would say that those kids, and their parents were from communities isolated from metropolitan Europeans, so were keeping up what to me seems like a very ancient practice amongst humans.

 

The Romans used them - from Maximus meaning biggest to Flaccus meaning lethargic . Biggus Dickus was somewhere in between. Then there was Ethelred, the Unready, and the Viking drunks, Eirik Ale-Lover and Eystein Foul-Fart. We had Richard the Lionheart, and William the Bastard (later changed to Conqueror. Who would call him Bastard then?) Alfred the Great.

 

So the examples you have from those Aboriginal kids show that granting of nicknames, for good or not, is intrinsic to a liberal human society. Perhaps the demise of nicknames is another result of political correctness running amok.

[Jerry_Atrick]

My work team know what a shocker is.. and a dunny... and a gunner (as in, he is a gunner.. he's always gunner do it.. but never does).

 

Occasionally others slip in to quizzical looks.

 

I agree with Octave - kids have their own vibrant use of English.. A lot of Aussie English is shared with British, (Mate, Bloke, Fella, etc). but I find the urban dictionary handly to look up sounds I don't understand.. which then become words.

[nomadpete]

9 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

sounds I don't understand.

Yeah, I've worked with a couple of grunters, too.

[old man emu]

28 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Yeah, I've worked with a couple of grunters, too.

Didn't know you were a swineherd.

[Yenn]

I was a swineherd, pigs ass I was.

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, Yenn said:

I was a swineherd, pigs ass I was.

He worked a bit and grabbed the opportunities as they came. Now he has his snout in the trough, and a key to the executive hog wallow.