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ENGLISH

JIM HOLLANDER AND ISSEI KATO/REUTERS

This week, the Australian National Dictionary came out with its first new edition in 28 years, adding more than 6,000 new words and phrases to the Aussie vernacular. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, whose second edition came out in 2004, has lots of official local expressions of our own. How well can you tell our English apart from Australia's?

1 shirtfront (v)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: A term in Australian football for charging at an opponent. (Example: In 2014, Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott vowed to “shirtfront” Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s alleged involvement in the MH17 plane-crash disaster, in which many Australian citizens died. Non-Australians, and presumably Mr. Putin, could have used Australia’s new dictionary to figure out what he meant.)

2 do a Bradbury (v)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: To win improbably or at the last minute. It’s a reference to Australian short-track speed skater Steven Bradbury, who won an unexpected gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City when all the other skaters crashed into each other in the last corner.

3 sooky baby (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: An Atlantic-Canadian insult for a childish or cowardly person.

4 bunji (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: An aboriginal Australian word for “mate,” which is what Australians call close friends.

5 kumanjayi (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: This is an aboriginal Australian word to use as a substitute name for a dead person. (In some indigenous cultures, it’s taboo to name or show images of the dead.)

6 bush baptist (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: What Australians call a person claiming a bogus religious affiliation.

7rurosexual (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: In Australia, this is a fashionable man who lives in the country. (It connotes a metrosexual man, and is not to be confused with the North American “lumbersexual.”)

8 tikinagan (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: This is the Cree word for a cradleboard used to carry babies.

9 bunny rug (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: This is what Australians call a small blanket used to wrap babies.

10 bunny hug (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: This is what people from Saskatchewan call a hooded sweatshirt.

11 gitch (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: A Canadian word for underwear. Other variations include “gaunch” (used especially in B.C. and Alberta) and “gotch” or “gotchies.”

12 schmick (adj.)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: When Australians say something is “schmick,” they mean it’s cool or excellent. The Australian dictionary’s editor-in-chief Bruce Moore, for instance, described the new tome as “the schmickest dictionary of all” when it was launched at Australia’s Parliament in Canberra on Tuesday.

13 bogan (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: A derogatory Australian term for a working-class, boorish person. The Down Under equivalent of Canada’s “hoser.” (The Canadian Oxford Dictionary also has an entry for “bogan,” which is what Maritimers and Maine residents call a stagnant backwater next to a lake or river.)

14 dogan (n)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: A 19th-century Canadian slur used against Roman Catholics, particularly Irish Catholics.

15 kétaine (adj.)
a. Australian
b. Canadian

What it means: What Québécois call something that’s kitschy or in poor taste.

How many words did you get right?

Answer all of the questions to see your result
Well done, mate!
Not bad, eh?
Lots of wrong answers there, ya hoser.

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