Entry 11: From Alight to Zed

It's the little differences. Here is a letter-by-letter list of things and sayings they have in Australia, that we don’t have or say in the States.

Alight – Dismount (I actually knew this before coming here, but it confused S, “When you alight from the train… what?”)

Brekky – Breakfast (Abbreviating words and adding a 'y' or an 'o' at the end seems to be quite popular here.)

Chemist – Drug Store (I went into the local chemist looking for some HB3O3 and came away quite disappointed.)

[A chemist in Newcastle. You won't even find a period table inside.]

Doco – Documentary (See, I told you. They love shortening words.)

Entrees – Appetizers (This one utterly confused me at first, because it basically means the exact opposite of what it means in the States.)

Fortnight – Two weeks (I like this one, it’s quite handy. We should use it in the States. Incidentally, I'm paid fortnightly.)

Going – Doing (As in the expression, “how you going”. It’s like a hybrid of “how're you doing” and “how’s it going”.)

Hungry Jack's – Burger King (Almost undoubtedly this has to do with a copyright issue. Probably already a Burger King here. Quick check of Wikipedia… yep.)



Idear – Idea (Overall, I like the Australian accent, but I don't like this particularly linguistic habit. Not at all. It just grates the ears. There’s no state in the US called Florider, nor is there a fish called a tuner, and I’m collecting data, not dater.)

Jandals – Flip-flops (A portmanteau of Japanese and sandals. Is it offensive? I’m not sure. To be on the safe side I'm not using it.)

Kerb – Curb ("Kerb Your Enthusiasm" -- great show, mate.)

Lamington – A cream filled cake coated with a hard chocolate shell and coconut shavings (I think it’s from New Zealand originally. Incidentally, I had my first one today, and it was gooo-ood.)

Maths – Math (I won't call it maths. I refuse.)

[What the hell is that 's' doing there?]

No Worries – Don’t worry about it

Oz – Australia

Pie – Potpie (Savory pies seem to be the default pie here, and they are quite popular as a quick snack. I've eaten a few, but they aren't very healthy. Today for lunch I got the combo special at the pie shop -- a pie, a lamington, and a pint of vanilla malted milk. I think I hit my saturated fat limit for the rest of 2010. In my defense, the queue at Subway was too long, so I went to the pie shop.)

Queue – Line (Used a fair amount in the States as well, but we would never say, “the queue at Subway was too long, so I went to the pie shop.”)

Rellies – Relatives

Salads – Vegetable toppings (I went into Subway and they asked me what salads I wanted on my sandwich. “Wow,” I thought to myself, “you can get entire salads on top of sandwiches here!” I told them to throw on a chicken Caesar, a Cobb, and a spicy Asian noodle. That was embarrassing.)

Tyre – Tire

Ute – All terrain vehicle (There’s an expression here, “root in a ute”. You’ll have to look up root yourself. Let’s just say I’m never going to tell anybody I "root" for a sports team.)

Vegemite – Yeasty dredge (See Entry 4 of this blog.)


Walking – Hiking (Sometimes called bush walking.)

XXXX – Brand of beer (I've never actually seen this beer, but I'm aware of it's existence. You know what other beer I have yet to see here? Foster’s. Turns out it’s not actually Australian for beer.)

Yeeees – Yes (Pronounced with a very emphasized long ‘e’ sound.)

Zed – The letter ‘z’ (“What number is this?” “It’s a letter, baby.” “What letter is this?” “It’s a zed.” “What’s a zed?” “Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead.”)