Australian National Dictionary 2016 adds 6000 Aussie words and phrases | Australian slang

IT’S official.

Aussie phrases “wouldn’t know a tram was up him until the conductor rang a bell” and “I don’t know if I’m Arthur or Martha” have been added to the Australian National Dictionary.

The update adds more than 6000 new Australian words and phrases, including words from more than 100 indigenous languages.

It now has definitions and the history of 16,000 words and phrases unique to Australia.

Babyccino, long black, battered sav, chiko roll, dagwood dog and fairy bread — all everyday descriptions of what we eat and drink, but only now officially recorded.

“Carry on like a pork chop”, “couldn’t run a chook raffle” and “a cup of tea, a Bex and good lie down” are included, as are “do a Bradbury”, “straight to the pool room” and “happy as a bastard on Father’s Day”.

Launching the dictionary, Labor’s Andrew Leigh also picked-up “I don’t know if I’m Arthur or Martha”, the “blood’s worth bottling” and “wouldn’t know a tram was up him until the conductor rang a bell”.

“To read a dictionary like this is to delight in the richness of the Australian language and to recognise it is a language that is always changing,” Dr Leigh said.

“May the third edition not be 28 years away.”

Oxford University Press boss Peter van Noorden said it was the first comprehensive update of the Australian National Dictionary since 1988.

Mr van Noorden said politics aside, former prime minister Tony Abbott added colour to the Australian language and was missed by the country’s wordsmiths.

“We’re a bit disappointed that Tony Abbott isn’t as prevalent anymore on our TV screens,” Mr van Noorden said at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday.

“He certainly brought us some beauties in terms of ‘shirt front’, which was a real winner. ‘Captain’s pick” was a beauty as well and he sort of the became the poster boy for ‘budgie smuggler’.”

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