Have you ever had some friends who caused you to worry at times?
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I am not referring to those people who have medical conditions, but friends who caused you some embarrassment when you least expected it.
I have met a few such people.
They could be described as mad as a cut snake, not that I would tell them so to their faces.
They might object.
But I did discover that to describe a person as being as mad as a cut snake is to refer to an Australian expression.
Overseas countries can’t hold a candle to Australians when it comes to slang, or what a person described to me as colloquialisms.
Gerald Wilkes, who was at the University of Sydney at the time of writing his dictionary of colloquialisms, described a person who was considered mad as a cut snake as out of his mind, or at least extremely annoyed.
In 1920 Louis Esson used mad as a cut snake to refer to “the boss” who apparently was not too happy at some stock escaping.
William Hatfield used the expression in 1932 and Don Townshend in 1975. But plenty of others have used it.
Bill Hornadge went much further in the range of slang or colloquialisms.
For instance, some expressions that can be traced to Australia: silly as a two-bob watch; mad as a meat axe; he’s so unlucky, if he bought a kangaroo it wouldn’t hop; if it was raining pea soup, he’d only have a fork; he has some palings off the fence; he’s a sandwich short of a picnic; he’s not the full quid; who’s robbing this coach; don’t come the raw prawn with me mate; he has straw coming out of his ears; he was as game as Ned Kelly.
A lot of these come from Bill Hornadge’s book The Australian Slanguage.
A counter jumper is a shop assistant, a barney is an argument, chew and spew is a cheap café, dinkie-die is the truth, dob in is to betray, hit the sack is to go to bed, gander is to peek, galah is a fool; ratbag is a person who acts foolishly, shaky isles is New Zealand; tinny is a person who is unusually lucky; and a sickie is a day off work.
Bill Hornadge quotes a US actor, Robert Easton, as saying: “I’ve heard John Newcombe describe a tennis match, and if I came close to imitating that I believe I could impersonate a wild duck singing Annie Laurie under water.”
The late Sidney J Baker, in his defining book The Australian Language, said a Hyde Park bushman was a person who knew little about the bush or the outback.
The Loo was Waterloo and The La was La Perouse. He also had several pages of colloquialisms.
Broken Hill had several mentions, not all complimentary.
The toast rack was a tram. Trams are about to be reintroduced in the eastern suburbs and elsewhere.
I have the impression that Australian slang is going out of use. I hope I am wrong. We have too much to lose.
lauriebarber.com; lbword@midcoast.com.au.