‘zambuck’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1906; New Zealand, 1918—a medic, paramedic or first-aid worker, especially when in attendance at a sporting event—from the proprietary name of a popular brand of antiseptic ointment
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‘a trap for young players’: meaning and origin
a hazard for the unwary—UK, 1887—originally used in reference to the game of draughts—then (Australia, 1894) in reference to cricket
Read More‘cowyard confetti’ and variants: meaning and origin
Australia, 1932—also ‘Flemington confetti’ (1933) and ‘farmyard confetti’ (1967)—bullshit (i.e., nonsense, rubbish)—also occasionally used literally in the sense of faeces
Read More‘to rattle one’s dags’: meaning and origin
New Zealand, 1968—to hurry up—‘dags’: clumps of matted wool and dung which hang around a sheep’s rear end—the allusion is to the rattling sound of a sheep’s dags when it runs
Read More‘not to be able to head a duck’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1890, & New Zealand, 1891—is used, in sports, of slowness, in particular as a disparaging comment on a racehorse
Read More‘flat stick’: meaning and origin
New Zealand, 1970—at full speed—perhaps after ‘flat out’ (i.e., with the maximum speed or effort) and after ‘quicksticks’ (i.e., quickly, without delay)
Read More‘sausage-wrapper’ (i.e., a newspaper)
colloquially used as a contemptuous appellation for a newspaper that the speaker regards as downmarket—Australia, 1880—but had occurred once (USA, 1874) as ‘bologna sausage wrapper’
Read More‘on the wrong tram’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1929—mistaken, astray, following the wrong tactics
Read More‘tarpaulin muster’: meaning and origin
the collecting of a pool of money, to be used either to provide assistance to some (other) person(s) or cause, or to buy drinks for the contributors—USA, 1863—nautical origin: such funds were originally collected by having the ship’s crew drop their money onto a tarpaulin
Read More‘green cart’: meaning and early occurrences
the imaginary vehicle supposed to take people to the mental asylum—Australia (1869), New Zealand (1884)—the reason the colour green was chosen is unknown
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