Words from Australia

The land down under is not backward in adding its own unique stamp to the language. Here are a few Australian words that have made it in, with meanings that give clues to what preoccupies our antipodean cousins:

ARVO afternoon

BIFFO fighting or aggressive behaviour

BOOFY strong but stupid

EVO evening

EXO excellent

NOAH a shark (from Noah’s Ark)

RELLO a relative

SHYPOO poor quality liquor

SMOKO a cigarette break

I don’t know why Aussies seem so hell bent on putting an O on the end of everything. Probably seemed an exo idea at the time!

By Barry Grossman

Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.

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