Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Quote for the Day



Aussie Dictionary Additions, Part 2



Last week I posted Part 1 of an item about words added to the Australian National Dictionary, the first revision in 28 years. You can read Part 1 at:
http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/aussie-dictionary-additions-part-1.html

In that post I quoted the following extract from a news item about the above:

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”.
I also explained, for the benefit of overseas readers, the meanings of babyccino, long black, battered sav and chiko roll.

Here are some comments about a few more words and expressions . . .
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Dagwood Dog:


Whereas a battered save is a saveloy (a spicy sausage) coated in batter and deep fried, often from Fish n Chips shops, a Dagwood Dog is a Frankfurt coated in batter and deep fried, then served on a stick. It can be dipped in tomato sauce and is a staple at shows such as the Royal Easter Show.
Comments: 
  • Also known as a Pluto Pup.
  • The seppos call them corn dogs.
  • The name originated in the 1940s, being adapted from the Dagwood sandwich, named after Dagwood Bumstead, a US comic-strip character. Dagwood used to make himself gargantuan sandwiches:


  • The name Pluto Pup was coined by an entrepreneur who saw the Dagwood Dogs sell well and wanted to sell the same product but used a different name.
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Fairy bread:



From Wikipedia:

Fairy bread is sliced white bread spread with margarine or butter and covered with sprinkles or hundreds and thousands which stick to the spread. It is typically cut into four triangles.

Fairy bread dates back to the 1920s in Australia, and is first recorded in The Hobart Mercury, which describes children consuming the food at a party. It is commonly served at parties in Australia and New Zealand. The origin of the term is not known, but it may come from the poem 'Fairy Bread' in Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, published in 1885.
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Carry on like a pork chop:

When you grow up with expressions you never really think about origins until something brings it to mind. So it is with saying that another person carried on like a pork chop, meaning that they behaved in a silly, stupid or highly dramatic way, unnecessarily so.

But why call it that? Pork chops don’t carry on, they are just pieces of meat.

I have read that in its original form, the full expression was that a person was like, or carried on like, a pork chop at a Jewish wedding, pork being a no-no in the Jewish faith and community. As the expression was shortened, it also underwent a meaning shift.

Comment:

It brings to mind the following . . .

A priest and a rabbi, by coincidence, were sitting next to each other on a long flight.

About an hour passes and not a single word was exchanged by the two men. Finally, the priest turns to the rabbi and says, "Rabbi, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” The rabbi said, "Of course you may." 
 
"I understand that many of you Jewish people, especially rabbis, keep kosher and, as such, don't eat things like bacon or ham.” The rabbi acknowledged that. "Haven't you ever even tasted bacon or ham?", asked the priest.


The rabbi explained, "Many years ago, I was a visiting rabbi in a small town in the middle of nowhere and found myself in a diner one Sunday morning. There was no one around so I ordered bacon and eggs. It was quite good but that was the only time that ever happened."


After some time, the rabbi turned to the priest and said, "Father, do you mind if you ask you a very personal question?” The priest said OK.

"You priests take an oath of celibacy, right?” asked the rabbi. "Why, yes,” answered the priest, wondering where this was going.

"Well, haven't you ever had sex since you've become as priest?” asked the rabbi. The priest looked about nervously, leaned toward the rabbi and answered very softly, "As a young parishioner I was approached by a troubled woman who was looking for my guidance. She was a beautiful, young woman and one thing led to another. So, yes, just once I had sex with a woman.” 

A few moments pass and the rabbi leans over to the priest and says, "A lot better than pork, isn't it."