“You beauty,” an Australian might say if you do something nice for them. The word itself has its origins in medieval French and entered the English lexicon shortly thereafter. Given the human tendency to shorten words for slang, it’s virtually impossible to say with any certainty where and when this slang term originated. It’s obviously a simple shortening of “beautiful”, and while the term “beauty” is a proper term in itself, its slang usage is slightly different. This is one of the most widely used slang terms for good in Australia and is used across generations and across time. Some slang is much easier to understand than others, and this is certainly the case with beaut.
#Australian lingo movie
You could use it in all sorts of contexts, like “That movie was sick!” or “That movie was sick as!”
You may also hear “sick as” too, which is much the same as “sweet as.” It has since spread just about everywhere, including Australia. Its original origin seems to have been in black jazz slang in the 1920s, until it was noted in a US newspaper only as recently as 1995.įrom there, it exploded in popularity and usage, and has become one of the most commonly used slang terms for good among the younger generations. Sick again is a really common slang term for awesome which you can likely find in just about any nation of English speakers. It’s again difficult to track the origin of such a phrase with much precision, but it most likely an elliptical form of ‘sweet as hell’ which would have been common in Hollywood movies in the middle of the 20 th Century.įollowing on from that last one, we have sick, often expressed as ‘sick as’. This is one that many Australians no doubt say almost subconsciously-it’s just a very natural way of saying something is very good. Well, the idea is simply that its as sweet or as good as it could be. But you might be wondering ‘sweet as what?’ It simply means that something is very good. This one can often sound quite strange to the ears of an American English speaker.īut phrases like this are quite common in UK and Australian English, and ‘sweet as’ is certainly one of the most common. It seems to have been in widespread use by the end of the 20 th Century, though again its oral use is likely far older than this.
#Australian lingo full
The origin of this word is shrouded in a lot of legend, as it is claimed it was originally coined by Davy Crockett in rural America.Īgain, it may well have entered the Australian lexicon as far back as the 1800s, where British English employed many terms such as ‘rip-roaring’ to mean excellent or full of spirit. It too is used as a noun rather than an adjective, so you might say an experience was a ‘real ripsnorter’. This one probably sounds uniquely strange to a non-Australian English speaker.īut it follows on directly from the term ‘ripper’ and has come to mean largel6y the same thing. Our earliest written records of its usage in this way in Australia date to the 1970s, though given its much older origin in British slang, oral usage is probably far older than this. Here it also just meant something excellent or very good.
Obviously, the term itself is far older than this usage of it, but in fact it was used in a similar way in the UK since as far back as the 18 th Century. In particular, this one is usually used to describe experiences.įor example, you might return from a holiday to say “That was a proper ripper!” if you had a really good time. To start with one you may be more familiar with in more macabre settings, such as the famous Jack the Ripper, but Australians have reclaimed this term to mean something good.
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