‘without a bone in the truck’: meaning and early occurrences
Australia, 1891—used to comment on the lack of work done—of unknown origin; may have originated in butchering, i.e., the preparation and sale of meat
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a humorous phrase: ‘where did you get your licence?’
USA, 1933—usually followed by an incongruous supposition—an allegation of incompetence addressed to the driver of a motor car by another motorist, or by a cyclist or a pedestrian
Read More‘overpaid, overdressed, oversexed and over here’
Australia and U.S.A, 1944—purportedly applied by the British and the Australians to the U.S. soldiers stationed in their respective countries during World War II—British self-deprecating retort: ‘underpaid, underdressed, undersexed and under Eisenhower’
Read More‘Mondayitis’: meaning and early occurrences
reluctance to attend school or work, or a reduction in working efficiency, experienced on a Monday morning—UK and USA, 1908; Australia, 1910—the suffix ‘-itis’ is applied to a state of mind or tendency fancifully regarded as a disease
Read More‘aerial ping-pong’: meaning and origin
derisive appellation given to Australian Rules (football), because the ball is often kicked high into the air, requiring players to leap and catch it—Australia, 1945—slang of the Australian armed forces during World War II
Read More‘sticker-licker’: meaning and origin
state of South Australia, 1952—a traffic warden—from the fact that South Australian traffic wardens licked the adhesive parking tickets in order to stick them to the windscreens—hence also the verb ‘sticker-lick’
Read More‘Double Pay’: meaning and origin of this Australian phrase
1966—With punning allusion to the high cost of living in that affluent harbourside suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Double Bay is colloquially referred to as ‘Double Pay’.
Read More‘(as) drunk as Chloe’: meaning and purported origin
UK, 1788—very drunk—may refer to Chloe, a woman with whom the English poet Matthew Prior (1664-1721) allegedly drank, and whom he often mentioned in his poems
Read More‘to cover more ground than Burke and Wills’
Australia, 1952—to travel a long distance—refers to the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860-61, which aimed to cross Australia from Melbourne, in the south, to the Gulf of Carpentaria, in the north
Read More‘the (great) Australian salute’: meaning and origin
the movement of the hand in brushing away flies—first recorded in 1967 in a speech by Fred Chaney, Member of the Australian House of Representatives—variants: ‘the Queensland salute’; ‘the Barcoo salute’
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