OZ VERNACULAR

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A look at some local lingo . . .

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Yakka:

Meaning:

Work, especially strenuous labour as in ‘hard yakka’.

Example:

"Carried out a lot of hard yakka last weekend."

Origin:

Yakka first occurs in the 1840s as a verb meaning ‘to work’, and it derives from 'yaga' meaning ‘work’ in the indigenous Yagara language of the Brisbane region. Yakka found its way into nineteenth-century Australian pidgin, and then passed into Australian English. Spelling variants such as yakker and yacker are also found.

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Apples:

Meaning:

Everything is fine, all is well.

Example:

"Don’t worry, mate, she’s apples."

Origin:

Australian English often uses the feminine pronoun ‘she’ where standard English would use ‘it’. For example, instead of 'it’ll be right' Australians say ‘she’ll be right’. She's apples was originally rhyming slang - apple and spice or apple and rice for 'nice'. The phrase has now lost all connection with its rhyming slang origin. First recorded in the 1920s the term can still be heard today.

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Arvo:

Meaning:

Afternoon.

Example:

“See you Saturday arvo.”

Origin:

It is often used in the phrase this arvo, which is sometimes shortened to sarvo: meet you after the game, sarvo. Arvo is an example of a special feature of Australian English, the habit of adding -o to an abbreviated word. Other such words are bizzo ‘business’ and journo ‘journalist’.

Speaker: “Hey Davo, I'm goin' to the servo for arvo smoko.”

Translation: David, I'm going to the service station to purchase some food for the afternoon break.

Arvo was first recorded in the 1920s and is still going strong today.

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Mad as a cut snake:

Meaning:

Very angry; crazy; eccentric. The phrase also takes the form mad as a snake. The different senses of the phrase derive from the fact that ‘mad’ has two main senses - ‘crazy’ and ‘angry’. The ‘crazy’ sense is illustrated by ‘that bloke wearing a teapot on his head is as mad as a cut snake’, and the angry sense is illustrated by ‘be careful of the boss this afternoon, he’s as mad as a cut snake’. There are similar phrases in Australian English including mad as a meat axe and mad as a gumtree full of galahs.

Origin:

Mad as a (cut) snake is first recorded in 1900 and may derive from the image of the throes of a snake cut in two.

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Cobber:

Meaning:

Friend, companion. Also used as a form of address.

Example:

“Give me a hand will ya, cobber.”

“G’day cobber.”

Origin:

The word probably derives from the Yiddish word chaber 'comrade'. A Yiddish source may seem unlikely, but there are several terms in Australian English that are likely to be derived from Yiddish, including doover (‘thingummyjig’), shicer (‘unproductive or worthless mining claim or mine’), and shickered ('drunk’). It is likely that these terms, as well as cobber, found their way into London slang (especially from the Jewish population living in the East End), and from there, via British migrants, into Australian English.

It is sometimes suggested that cobber derives from British dialect. The English Dialect Dictionary lists the word cob 'to take a liking to anyone; to "cotton" to', but the evidence is from only one Suffolk source, and the dictionary adds: 'Not known to our other correspondents'. This Suffolk word is sometimes proposed as the origin of cobber, but its dialect evidence is very limited.

Cobber, now somewhat dated, is rarely used by young Australians.

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