GLOSSARY
Australian slangs
Aggro – someone who is aggravated or upset about something
Arvo – afternoon
Barbie – barbecue cooking outdoors.
Bush lawyer – a person who gives opinions, but is not qualified to do so.
Cheerio – another way of saying ‘Goodbye’.
Chew the fat – have a good talk together.
Cobber – a friend, mate.
G’day – an informal ‘hello’ greeting, which derives from the abbreviated English greeting ‘Good day’, which literally means the speaker wishes the listener to have a good day, or a day of general harmony and enjoyment.
Sanger – sandwich.
Verbal diarrhoea – someone who talks non-stop, usually nonsense.
Malay Vocabulary
Abang, Bang (pr. Ah-bung, Bung) – older brother
Bapak (pr. Buh-pahk) – father
Ibu (pr. Ee-boo) – mother
Kebaya (pr. Kuh-bah-yuh) – a traditional Malay or Indonesian woman’s blouse reaching down to the knees for its body length, and worn with a batik or songket (brocade with gold or silver thread patterns) sarong. The Indonesian heroin Raden Ayu Kartini was well known for wearing this attire.
Nasi lemak (pr. Nah-see le-muck) – a dish commonly sold in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and southern Thailand, which is equivalent to the Indonesian nasi uduk. It is a dish traditionally consisting of rice soaked in rice coconut cream with cucumber slices, small dried anchovies (ikan bilis), roasted peanuts, stir fried water convolvulus (kangkong), hard boiled egg, pickled vegetables (achar) and spicy sauce (sambal). This dish is traditionally served on banana leafs.
Satay (pr. Sah-tay) – a Malay and Indonesian dish consisting of chunks or slices of dice-sized meat (normally beef, chicken, mutton and beef but also fish) on bamboo skewers.
Tuhan (pr. Too-hun) – Malay term usage for the God of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and any other monotheistic religions.
Songkok (pr. Song-ko’) – a cap (usually black) in the shape of a truncated cone and similar to fez, and it is the traditional Malay cap. It is better known as peci in Indonesia, which was popularised by President Sukarno as the national headdress for men.
Merdeka (pr. Muhr-deh-kah) – a Malay term for uttering ‘independence’ or ‘freedom’.
Other terms
Fleur-de-lys – the motif found on the Quebec flag today, and it is also commonly found found on the spikes of residential fences in Victorian England.
