The origins behind some of Australia’s most iconic sayings
Susan Butler, editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, joined Today Extra on Tuesday morning to reveal the origins behind some of Australia’s most iconic sayings. And some of these might surprise you!
"Fair dinkum"
Did you know “fair dinkum” actually originates from Britain?
“Dinkum comes from a Midlands dialect in Britain so it's a sort of a Lincolnshire term for the amount of work you're expected to do,” Ms Butler explained.
“So if you got sent down to the coal mines and were told to bring out 20 cart loads of coal or something then that was a ‘fair dinkum’. If you were told to bring up 30 or 40 cart loads then that wasn't a ‘fair dinkum’ and you got very upset.
“They even had the phrase ‘fair dinkum’ meaning ‘let's be reasonable about this and that's kind of where they stopped it.”
But once the phrase was brought over to colonial Australia, fair dinkum evolved to describe an Australian encompassing Australian values.
“We have done more with it and therefore claim it as our own,” Ms Butler said.
"They're fit as a Mallee bull"
We’ve always wondered why “Mallee bull” was chosen for this Aussie outback phrase.
“The Mallee region we know best as one in Victoria, there's a couple of them in Australia. The word Mallee comes from the Wemba-Wemba Aboriginal language of Victoria and it describes the way Eucalypts grow there. They have a thick root under the ground that collects water,” Ms Butler explained.
“The Mallee is very dry and if cattle escape into the Mallee there is not much for them to eat out there so they either die or they survive if they're particularly fit and hardy and strong.
“So [the phrase] means you are very strong and a survivor.”
"Cobber"
It’s used to describe a mate or friend in Australian slang, but “cobber” also originated from Britian.
“Cobber is one we share with British English and nobody is quite sure, there are two theories,” Ms Butler said.
“One is that it comes from the Suffolk dialect where there's a phrase "to cob on to someone" - to make an association with them - so if people ‘cob’ then they become ‘cobbers’ and that means friends.
“Equally there's the suggestion that the word comes from Yiddish chaber which means "comrade or friends’.”
"More than you can shake a stick at"
Now used to describe a situation that is “more than you can handle”, the saying first came from British English.
“This phrase has moved a long way from its beginning which was in British English where you could ‘shake a stick’ at someone which means to behave in a threatening way. You could shake various things,” Ms Butler said.
“From there it went to America and they were the ones who came up with the phrase ‘more than you can shake a stick at’ with the sense that if there's one cow in the paddock you may well feel inclined to shake a stick at it to make it run away.
“But if there's a whole herd of them out there you might feel slightly more doubtful because it's more than you can handle.
“Then we changed it and we seem to be more fond of ‘more than you can poke a stick at’ but both of them are around and both have the sense of ‘more than you can handle’.”