General Chat

I'm not sure what there is about the Australian psyche that makes people want to shorten words eg brekkie for breakfast, or biccy for biscuit, arvo for afternoon, etc

The same with changing some words entirely as in snags for sausages.

Over the years I've become accustomed to many, amazed by some and used quite a few myself. It's a bit like using local dialect when moving around the UK but on a national scale.

However the most recent one, introduced due to the current pandemic, has made my blood boil.

The corruption of the word isolated into 'iso'

To me the word iso was, is, and always will be, a term for measuring old fashioned film speed

The higher a film's iso rating was, the higher the film speed and the less light needed for a good result.

Sometimes Aussies leave me baffled :-S

Allan ...................

I remember being struck by some of those when we lived down there in 75/76, and when talking to my ozzie (!) cousins

I do seem to remember hearing the word "biccy" when offering a pet a dog biscuit, but I can't remember whether that was here or back in the UK.


I've been told off by some people for using the abbreviation "ad" which is the word in Canada and the US.

I've been told it should be "advert". as used in the UK. At the same time I've been asked over here why the UK don't shorten an abbreviation to its shortest possible ...... in other words, why "advert"

Sometimes you just can't win.


BTW ............. OH often says he's going to have a biccy, but I can't remember whether he was using before 1975 or only after, it just seems to have always been his term. Like he always says "choccie" for a chocolate.


I think I agree with you about "iso".

I've always said Biccy :-)

I think that in the spoken language such abbreviations are quite acceptable, but to see some of them written in what are supposed to be serious news report debases the whole English language and demonstrates that the author couldn't be bothered to learn his trade :-|

Rant over.

I shall now go and lie down in a darkened room until it is time for my next dose of medicine :-D

My Mother was quite strict about shortening people’s names we all always called by our full names and when I went to meet her cousin Leonard I was advised to call him Len because he he didn’t like being called Leonard. This is here in UK.
When I went to Australia for the first time to meet my Uncle Joseph Ellison, he was known as Ellie, his wife obviously my Aunt Valerie is Aunt Val and I am known as Sue from England over there. Mum will be turning in her grave at all that. :-D

I love my Aussie slang and being of the older generation it was used a great deal growing up. It's something we're losing with so many people coming here from other countries.

I report to the UK and in a video call through the week to the boss and the commercial director I threw in the term "Fair suck of the sav". The look on their faces was priceless.

I use slang on them on purpose for a bit of fun and they think it's funny. I always ask the boss how is the cheese and kisses along with the ankle bitters.


As for the word Iso, sorry you're offended by us Aussies but I never knew it was used for describing the speed of film so I have learnt something new.

Gai, I came to Australia in 1982 and haven't been back to the UK since. I have taken out Aussie citizenship (1984) so I'm an Aussie and definitely not offended by Aussies, per se, but the use of some expressions creeping into, supposedly, serious news reports just jars with me.

As I stated in my post, in spoken language fine, but not written, unless in reported speech.

I shall now retire to partake of my medication which comes from the Margaret Region (which I can still visit) and is sold in 750ml bottles ;-)

we bought some really nice wines from the Margaret River area, some were ompred here in the 1980s and 90s :-)

I hate being called Shirl
I will always correct and say my name is shirley

Mum would always insist on all of us being called by our full name but the funny thing is our elder brother Stanley was always called Boy ! No idea why

When he joined the RAF for his National Service and bringing mates home I remember the time when he said my name is Stanley ,I don’t mind you calling me Stan but I won’t answer if you keep calling me Boy ,

Guess he didn’t want the mickey taken out of him when he was in camp

Don't call me too early in the morning! I'm usually engrossed catching-up with the overnight postings on here.

Some words and expressions travel well. I often use them without thinking.

Over the ten years we lived in Oz we heard many wonderful expressions but my favourite was 'fair suck of the sav'.

I have been known to use the term 'shape up or ship out', heard both in the UK and in Oz.

Out woop woop - a wonderful expression that many in the UK will know as the back of beyond.

Some of the words mentioned:

Biccy- often used by my family in Lancashire and Liverpool when speaking with young children so it seems to have been exported to Oz;

Brekkie - first heard it used in Oz but there is Ready Brek to consider so brekkie may have been coined elsewhere and exported;

Arvo - first heard in Oz. In the UK now, the term 'aft' is more in use for afternoon;

Piecey - first heard in an Oz crèche to describe the snack (in this case a Vegemite buttie - a good Liverpool term) given to children. I believe it comes from 'piece', the term used in the Midlands to describe a snack or lunch - but I await correction there;

Ad - yes, Sylvia, it is more often than not, the word 'advert'. Do you think it gained momentum by the generation that coined the expression 'ad campaign' or from an early description of 'ad men'?

My siblings and I all use shortened versions of our names - in my case, the first three letters that you see in my name here, however, I have always wondered how people grow up and answer to the Christian name of a parent, eg in his neighbourhood, Allan may be called Bob, after his Dad. I just never got why someone would want to do that. :-S

I've seen ad used in print since at least the early sixties and it probably began in the fifties when ITV started. In any case advert is itself an abbreviation.

We're we live now in Dumfries & Galloway give us a phone. not will ring you up as us Lancashire folk say . when they shop it's for messages not shopping .it's confusing doesn't take much :-D :-D don't like Babs or Barb . :-P

Sir John Cheke (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar who wrote:

‘I am of this opinion that our own tung should be written cleane and pure, unmixt and unmangeled with borowing of other tunges; wherein if we take not heed by tiim, ever borowing and never paying, she shall be fain to keep her house as bankrupt‘.

My mother insisted on calling us by our full names - but our dad had different ideas :-S
Dad always referred to me ('proper' name Margaret) as 'Maggie Mops' or just 'Mops'.
My sister - 'proper' name Anne-Marie, was called 'Anne Merud', by dad, so she shortened it to just Anne.
Eldest brother, named after dad, became known as 'Dock', the other brother went through a variety of names - but is now Gerry. :-S

My brother was called Boy by our Dad I honk until he was at secondary school school that was also when he went into long trousers.
I don’t like when people say car boot instead of car boot sale etc but I blame my mum for that lol.
Ellison was my Uncle’s middle but I got used to calling him Uncle Ellie.
I just cannot say Oz or U S A.
One of my Uncles over here was known as Billy because his first name was Ernest the same as his Dad to save any confusion, yeah right that worked, both were William Ernest :-(

B**ger. (what a quaint expletive) I seem to have started something here :-D

Aft is a nautical term to mean the opposite of the pointy bit.

In my case, I was called by all and sundry, by the shortened version of my surname, Mort.

I felt quite proud when Sir Terry Pratchett published a book thus entitled ;-)

Shouldn't that be Mort D'after. ;-)



As children we always called the eldest brother 'Bong' - we'd have visits from the boys in blue if we now went round the house shouting for Bong!

Possibly, and I wouldn't disagree with you :-)

Another superb pun ;-) :-D :-D