Strewth! Aussie words added to Oxford online dictionary
Photo via grevillea/flickr
Sausage sizzle and pav are just two of more than 500 Australian words added to the latest update to the Oxford Dictionaries online.
Mark Gwynn, editor and researcher based at the Australian National Dictionary Centre at ANU, said the Internet had influenced the role of dictionaries in the past decade.
“Space limitations had meant many Australian words and phrases had never made it to British and American dictionaries, but with the Oxford Dictionaries online they are able to go back and select material that had been omitted before,” he said.
The new entries include uniquely or chiefly Australian words and phrases, a number of which are shared with New Zealand English.
The new online dictionary includes lamington drives, lolly water, abbreviations such as mushie and sanger, and words from Aboriginal languages such as maluka, makarrata, and wonguim.
“One of my favourite phrases is ‘what do you think this is, bush week’. That was a phrase my dad used when I asked him an impertinent or silly question. It’s great to see these kinds of phrases being added to the online dictionary because many in the younger generation would not be familiar with them,” Mr Gwynn said.
The material added to the online dictionary was largely drawn from the second edition of the Australian Oxford Dictionary published in 2004 and edited at the ANDC.
“Australian English is often noted for its informality, colloquialisms, and the way this is seen to reflect a particular Australian sense of humour and disdain for authority,” he said.
“But Australian English is more than this – it reflects the diverse nature of Australian society and Australian experiences, and this can be seen in microcosm in the entries added to OxfordDictionaries.com.”
The update was part of a collaborative project with the ANDC to increase Oxford Dictionaries’ online coverage of international varieties of English, making these words freely available online for the first time with updated definitions, pronunciations, and usage examples.