‘Barney’s bull’: meanings and early occurrences

2nd Aug 2022.Reading time 19 minutes.

Australia, 1834—used in various phrases, in particular as a type of someone or something in a very bad state or condition—also in the phrase ‘all behind like Barney’s bull’, meaning ‘very delayed’ or ‘backward’—origin unknown

‘may your chooks turn into emus and kick your dunny down’

27th Jul 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

Australia, 1972—a jocular curse—the Australian National Dictionary Centre explains that this phrase “recalls an earlier time when many Australians kept chooks (domestic chickens) in the backyard and the dunny was a separate outhouse”

‘Socceroo’: meaning and origin

23rd Jul 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

(plural) the Australian men’s national soccer team; (singular) a member of this team—originated in 1972 as the name of the mascot of the Australian men’s national soccer team, created for the 1974 FIFA World Cup

‘to shoot the cat’: meaning (and origin?)

17th Jul 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

to vomit, especially from drunkenness—slang, obsolete—UK, 1785—perhaps alludes to the fact that cats are prone to vomit—cf. also the obsolete French verb ‘renarder’, to vomit, from the noun ‘renard’, denoting a fox

‘couldn’t lead a flock of homing pigeons’: meaning and origin

13th Jul 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

used of a person who is incapable of organising the simplest event, task, etc.—Australian politics, 1945, as a comment on Robert Gordon Menzies, generally ascribed to William Morris Hughes

‘(as) mad as a (cut) snake’: meaning and origin

11th Jul 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

out of one’s mind, extremely annoyed—Australia, 1900; New Zealand, 1907—originally as ‘(as) mad as a snake’, ‘(as) mad as snakes’ and variants—later as ‘(as) mad as a cut snake’

‘Bugs Bunny’ (i.e., an eagle)

4th Jul 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

Australia, 1954—derogatory nickname for the metal eagle at the top of the Australian-American Memorial in Canberra—alludes to the fact that, from a distance, the eagle’s upswept wings look like a rabbit’s ears

‘dinnyhayser’: meanings (and origin?)

2nd Jul 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

Australia, 1878—a knockout blow; anything of exceptional size or force—allegedly alludes to a boxer called Dinny Hayes—but no evidence supports this allegation

‘panier de crabes’: meaning and origin

30th Jun 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

1942—an arena of fierce or ruthless rivalry—borrowed from French: literally ‘basket of crabs’—the image is of crabs fighting, if not devouring one another, when kept in a basket

‘within a bull’s roar of’: a measure of distance

25th Jun 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

Australia, 1930—when used negatively, means ‘far away from’; when used affirmatively, means ‘not too far away from’—refers to the fact that a roaring bull can be heard over a great distance

word histories

Tag: animals