Transcript of AE 1430 - Dead Horses & Flat Lizards - Does Dad Know It? Ep 3

Pete:
G'day, you mob! Welcome to Aussie English. I'm your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Down Under. So whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flipping hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go!

Pete:
G'day guys. Pete here from Aussie English. Welcome to another episode of Does Dad Know It? The series where I test my dad Ian on Australian slang terms and expressions and whether he knows them, what they mean, whether he'd use them, and if it's something that other Australians say, even if he doesn't. If you want to learn over 1001 Australian slang terms and expressions, please check out my Aussie Slang Dictionary. Just go to www.SlangEbook.com. You can grab a copy there, that's www.SlangEbook.com. Link will be in the description.

Pete:
All right, Dad. Dead horse.

Ian:
Tomato sauce.

Pete:
So it's another example of rhyming slang, right? Cockney rhyming slang.

Ian:
For dead horse.

Pete:
There's a lot of these. Captain Cook. Oh man. We've even got that later today.

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
Burning through content. Oh forget that, forget that. Right.

Ian:
So teaser.

Pete:
A dead horse, is that- do we make tomato sauce from that?

Ian:
From dead horses? No! We make it out of... No, just rhyming slang. Dogs iron, dead horse.

Pete:
Yeah.

Ian:
It was a pie and sauce.

Pete:
Dogs eye, a meat pie.

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
Dead horse, tomato sauce. So can you use it in a sentence for me?

Ian:
You just did. Going down the pub to have a dog's eye and dead horse.

Pete:
There you go. So do you use that?

Ian:
Dead horse? No.

Pete:
It became one of those things that...

Ian:
I'm not a rhyming slang person.

Pete:
It was used a lot in the past, right?

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
And then more recently, it's kind of used as a joke. Oh, I grabbed some dead horse. You know, you'll say that at Maccas and the young girl behind the counter will be like, what the fuck?

Ian:
Yeah, it's like asking for chips without salt. And they look at you like, we can't do that.

Pete:
Yeah.

Ian:
We do fries and they come with salt.

Pete:
You mean ketchup?

Ian:
Yeah, exactly.

Pete:
All right, number two. Flat out like a lizard drinking.

Ian:
Flat out like a lizard drinking means 'I am working very hard'.

Pete:
Yes. Extremely busy. Right.

Ian:
So, it comes from- again, it's a, a simile that has nothing to do with the actual thing. So flat out means like a car is flat out when it's going as fast as it can.

Pete:
Yes.

Ian:
And then a lizard drinking is going to be lying next to a pool of water. So it is flat out.

Pete:
Spread out.

Ian:
So it's one of those sort of nonsensical similes.

Pete:
Yeah. It's very clever isn't it. So. And you can shorten it, too, can't you?

Ian:
Yeah. Like a lizard.

Pete:
Well no- you can do that too. But you can also say just flat out.

Ian:
Just flat out.

Pete:
Yeah. I've been flat out all day. I don't know, would you say I've been like a lizard? Yeah. Oh God. It's funny. It's almost like you do. People do this intentionally in Australia to be as confusing as...

Ian:
'Flat out' came first and then 'like a lizard drinking'.

Pete:
Yeah.

Ian:
Came after that.

Pete:
Yes. Okay. Okay. So give me it in a sentence.

Ian:
I've been working all day, mate. Flat out like a lizard drinking.

Pete:
All right. Number three. Stickybeak.

Ian:
Stickybeak.

Pete:
What is a stickybeak?

Ian:
Stickybeak comes from sticky nose. As in putting your nose in where it is not desired. You're in somebody else's business.

Pete:
Sticking it where it doesn't belong.

Ian:
Stickybeak is. Yeah, yeah. Somebody who's in somebody else's business.

Pete:
And so 'beak'?

Ian:
As in nose.

Pete:
Like the nose of a bird.

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
Stickybeak. A nosey person, someone who tries to get into other people's business. Stop being such a stickybeak. And mind your...? Mind- mind your what?

Ian:
Mind your beak.

Pete:
Mind your beak. Mind your own business.

Ian:
Yeah. Mind your own beeswax.

Pete:
Yeah, that's another one. You're, your own beeswax. Mind your own beeswax. Mind your own business. Number four. You'll never use this one, dad. Fair dinkum.

Ian:
I'll use it all the time.

Pete:
Fair dinkum.

Ian:
Yeah yeah.

Pete:
Yeah. This has got a few different definitions.

Ian:
It means. Well, again, it depends on the intonation. I'll see if I can do them. 'Fair dinkum' means 'are you serious'?

Pete:
Really?

Ian:
Yeah. And somebody, if somebody then says something to you, you go and they go. Is that true? And you go, yeah, fair dinkum.

Pete:
Yeah, it is true.

Ian:
Means it is true.

Pete:
Yeah. And then you could be like, Oh, fair dinkum.

Ian:
Oh, fair dinkum means You cannot possibly, seriously, be doing that.

Pete:
That's it. But then it can also be used as like an adjective, like a fair dinkum bloke.

Ian:
A fair dinkum thing, yeah.

Pete:
Fair dinkum person. He's genuine. He's true. He's honest.

Ian:
Exactly, yeah.

Pete:
Yeah, that's a cool one. That's definitely one worth learning.

Ian:
And it's, and it is used all the time. Even when people would go, oh, I never say that. Fair dinkum. I wouldn't say it, you know.

Pete:
Yeah. Is he being fair dinkum?

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
I don't believe him. All right. Number five. Onya.

Ian:
Good on you.

Pete:
Good on ya.

Ian:
Good on ya.

Pete:
Good on you, Sonya!

Ian:
Yeah, Sonya.

Pete:
What was that? That's a song from this comedian. I had a crush on you. I had a crush on you, Sonya. Yeah. That's it.

Ian:
Yeah. Good on you. It means just well done. But again, it's an intonation thing. And I've, I know people, particularly some people from European backgrounds who cannot hear the distinction between the insult and the compliment.

Pete:
Well, again, it's just yeah, that it's like fair dinkum, right. It's the tone over the top.

Ian:
And it's sort of...

Pete:
Oh, onya, mate!

Ian:
If I said to somebody 'good on you'. It means congratulations, well done. If I said 'good on you!', it means you're an idiot.

Pete:
Yeah. Or that 'oh yeah. Good onya, mate. Sort of like. Get your hand off it. Good on you. Well done. So yeah, typically it's 'good on you, well done'. But obviously, depending on the tone. I know...

Ian:
You can be ironic with it.

Pete:
It's sort of like, oh, well done. Like good on you. I think that was the kind of thing I would say to people when they made jokes about me at school, you know, they'd say, oh, look, it's it's Peter Pearson. And you'd be like, yeah, good one mate. Yeah. Good on you...

Ian:
Haven't heard that before...

Pete:
That's it.

Ian:
And then it got contracted to just 'onya'.

Pete:
Yeah. Onya, mate..

Ian:
Yeah, onya..

Pete:
We- I guess you've also got like on your bike,

Ian:
On your bike? On your, on your bike means you can...

Pete:
Bugger off!

Ian:
Right. Now.

Pete:
Get on your bike and fuck off. All right, so you got that one down. Number six. I think we got it. A mystery bag!

Ian:
A mystery bag! Sausage.

Pete:
It is. It is a..

Ian:
Sausage.

Pete:
Why do we call him mystery bag?

Ian:
Because nobody knows what goes into them! And if you do know, you don't want to tell anyone.

Pete:
You do know you don't eat them.

Ian:
Yeah, exactly. So.

Pete:
So how would you use mystery bag in Australian English?

Ian:
Oh, I'm going down. Going down to the butcher's to get a couple of steaks and some mystery bags.

Pete:
I think this is the part of Australian English that I love because it's so kind of like, what would you say like colourfully literal or like it's, it's the playing with the language in such a way that it's humorous.

Ian:
Yes.

Pete:
Right. That it's just sort of like, it's just stupid.

Ian:
But it's accurate. But it's ironic as well.

Pete:
We're gonna have to bring that back. I haven't used that one before and I just love it. Mystery bags.

Ian:
Mystery bags.

Pete:
So I would say a snag. And maybe it's also rhyming with snag. I don't know, but a snag would be a sausage. That'll typically be what I'd go for, but I think I'm gonna have to start saying I'll get a mystery bag. I'll go to Bunnings and get a mystery bag and bread.

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
So how would you use this in a sentence, dad?

Ian:
I just did. "Going down the butchers to get a couple of mystery bags."

Pete:
Do you use this? At all or is it?

Ian:
No.

Pete:
You're gonna have to now. We're going to start doing it as a joke.

Ian:
No. Jo will punch me. That's Pete's mum.

Pete:
You just have to slide...

Ian:
She's not a violent person!

Pete:
Put it into the conversation and be like, Hey, Jo, do you think I should get some mystery bags?

Ian:
And she'll look at me and go, What?! Fuckin idiot.

Pete:
All right, number seven. A dag.

Ian:
A dag?

Pete:
This one...

Ian:
It means a humorously, foolish person.

Pete:
Yes, and it's used affectionately, right?

Ian:
You wouldn't. Oh, you Dag.

Pete:
It would almost be embarrassing to use, as a real insult.

Ian:
When it first started to be used in my head anyway, was in the middle 1960s.

Pete:
Really? That far back?

Ian:
Yeah. Yeah.

Pete:
So you were about 34?

Ian:
Yeah, something like that. I was a 30 year old primary school student- primary school, and it was an insult when you were a primary school kid. Oh, you dag!

Pete:
Yeah.

Ian:
It was the worst thing you could say because you weren't allowed to swear. Yeah.

Pete:
Okay.

Ian:
Yeah, dag. And dags are, the poo that sticks to the wall around a sheep's bum.

Pete:
Rattle your dags.

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
Get a move on. That's one of my favourites.

Ian:
Rattle your dags! Exactly.

Pete:
Cause they like harden.

Ian:
And then we shake! When they shake.

Pete:
When the sheep run. Rattle your dags. All right, we got to get a move on. Rattle your dags, kids.

Ian:
So I'm not sure how the sheep's faeces on the wool around their bum became a mildly humorous insult for somebody who was somewhat foolish.

Pete:
It would just be that thing. I think language does this, right. Someone came up with it one day as kind of a joke. Something funny, and it stuck. For some reason, and it probably just felt good to say.

Ian:
Dag.

Pete:
Dag. When I was younger, we used this as kind of that affectionate thing, though it wasn't really an insult. Because it would almost be embarrassing if you, like, you know, had some altercation with someone and you wanted to insult them and you said, Oh, you dag. They'd be like, Pfft, is that the best you can do? Like, is that it?

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
So yeah.

Ian:
Fair dinkum!

Pete:
And you can use it for someone who's kind of like unfashionable, right? If they wear clothes, that's a little bit embarrassing.

Ian:
Bit daggy.

Pete:
Yeah. Or they're into nerdy, kind of embarrassing, you know, hobbies or things you might be like, oh, that's a bit daggy, but it's used in a way. I think that it's not like you're blatantly insulting them in a nasty kind of way. It's kind of a...

Ian:
It's sort of like...

Pete:
Look, I love you, mate, but you're a bit of a...

Ian:
A bit of a dag.

Pete:
Yeah, you're a bit of a dag. It'd be like when Noah, my son, he makes some jokes and you're just like, Oh, stop being such a dag, mate.

Ian:
Yeah, What's a dag?

Pete:
Do you know what? This morning was so funny. What did I say? I bought Joey, my daughter, a hedgehog. And they're always making jokes about butts in the house, right? Always like. Ah! Sit on your butts...

Ian:
You need to explain what a hedgehog is. It is not a small rodent from Britain.

Pete:
No, they're not rodents. They're... It's a sort of chocolate slice with biscuit pieces in it.

Ian:
Yes.

Pete:
We call them hedgehogs and coconut on top. So she's obsessed with them. So I bought her one. Anyway, she, I get home and she runs off and hides it. She thinks she's hiding it because I'm watching her at the back of the cupboard, behind a bunch of stuff. And she turns around and she's just like, If you eat my hedgehog, I'll put something up your butt. And I was just like, What?! Out of nowhere.

Ian:
What did you say? Ah, stop being a dag?

Pete:
Yeah, well, I just pissed myself, to be honest. I was just like, where did she learn that? And I'm like, where do you think?

Ian:
Where do you think?

Pete:
Me? Me and Noah are joking around about butts. Anyway, that was..

Ian:
Boy's humor.

Pete:
That was the humorous thing of the day that made Joey a bit of a dag.

Ian:
Right.

Pete:
I'll put something up your butt. All right. Have a captain cook.

Ian:
It's just a rhyming slang for 'a look'.

Pete:
Yeah.

Ian:
And Butcher's Hook was the alternative one.

Pete:
Yeah. Okay.

Ian:
Have a butcher's.

Pete:
Have a butcher's. See, that would confuse the shit out of me, let alone people learning English.

Ian:
That one used to be used all the time.

Pete:
Too many steps removed. You know, you had to know that...

Ian:
Well, that's the whole point of rhyming slang, is that you drop the bit that rhymes like, you know...

Pete:
And then it's the person in the know. Yeah.

Ian:
Cockney rhyming slang for 'stairs' was 'apples and pears'.

Pete:
Yeah. And it became 'apples'.

Ian:
Then people just go, Oh, get up them apples.

Pete:
Yeah.

Ian:
The fuck are you talking about? Well.

Pete:
Yeah, I guess there's a whole bunch of those, right?

Ian:
Yeah. And that's the rhyming slang is usually you drop the thing. But 'Captain Cook' means 'have a look'.

Pete:
Yes. So do you use 'Captain Cook'? "Have a Captain Cook"?

Ian:
No, I'm more likely to use 'butchers'.

Pete:
Butchers?

Ian:
Yeah, but unlikely, too. But less likely to even use Captain Cook.

Pete:
We've got so many of these, though, too. Like, have a look, have a gander. Have a squiz.

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
You know...

Ian:
Check it out.

Pete:
Yeah. There's a whole bunch of expressions related to that, right. So how would you use this in everyday English, to have a Captain cook?

Ian:
"There's a bird out the back. Oh, I'm going to go and have a Captain Cook." Go and have a look.

Pete:
Enjoy him.

Ian:
Yeah. Gonna have a butchers.

Pete:
Can't have a butchers.

Ian:
It's not a butcher bird. It's a magpie!

Pete:
All right. Number nine. Spewing.

Ian:
Uh, it means I am distinctly unhappy about this series of events.

Pete:
Yes. That's it. Very disappointed or annoyed.

In other words, it has made me sick. Spewing is a slang term for throwing up.

Pete:
We've got a lot of those, right.

Ian:
Oh yeah.

Pete:
To chuck, to vomit, vomant, chunder, spew. There's so many terms that we have.

Ian:
Ralph!

Pete:
Yeah, that's it. Ralph. That's almost. Is that an onomatopoeia? Dad's almost dying here.

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
That's one that actually sounds like what it is. Like woofing me out. The best thing is your best friend's called Ralph.

Ian:
He is, yes.

Pete:
All right, so spewing, is this something you'd use?

Ian:
Yeah. Not now, but I used to use it when I was a kid. I think it's one of those ones that I don't see many adults that use it, but kids use it all the time.

Pete:
They seem younger and like..

Ian:
Spewin'!

Pete:
Surfers, skaters, that kind of crowd.

Ian:
That sort of yeah. That culture.

Pete:
You can use it when you mean like, Oh, I'm devastated. Oh mate, I broke my board. Spewin'! How would you use this in a sentence?

Ian:
I think you just did.

Pete:
I know you keep saying it.

Ian:
Yeah, well, you use it then. How would I use it?

Pete:
I'm trying to get more examples!..

Ian:
More examples.

Pete:
I'm trying to I'm trying to elicit more examples for the listener.

Ian:
Ah, spewin'! Because you keep asking me to do what you've just told me!

Pete:
Yeah, but I used it. You didn't use it!

Ian:
Yeah. That's true.

Pete:
All right. Number ten. True blue.

Ian:
True blue means honest.

Pete:
True blue.

Ian:
Australian. Genuine, genuine.

Pete:
Genuinely Aussie, loyal and authentic.

Ian:
Yeah, and it doesn't have to be Australian. It could just be- 'true blue' means you're genuine and honest and yeah, yeah, you're a true...

Pete:
True blue Aussie legend.

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
A true blue, fair dinkum, bonzer legend.

Ian:
Beauty, bonzer-ocker?

Pete:
So do you use true blue?

Ian:
No.

Pete:
It's a bit outdated, isn't it?

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
What do you think it comes from? True blue.

Ian:
I got no idea.

Pete:
Let's have a quick... Have a captain look- ah, captain cook! Have a captain look! That's redundant.

Ian:
Have a butchers.

Pete:
The origin of true blue. Are you going to place your bets, dad? What do you reckon?

Ian:
I got no idea.

Pete:
16th century Coventry, England, a city famous for producing high quality colour-fast blue dye. Coventry blue.

Ian:
All right. So true blue.

Pete:
Right.

Ian:
It was accurate. You knew you'd get the same colour.

Pete:
Wow. Yeah. So it came from the Scots, into British politics, into Australian slang in the 19th century and 20th century. There you go.

Ian:
There you go.

Pete:
Isn't that weird? Yeah, it's funny how often that sort of thing. We use it...

Ian:
It's a slang term...

Pete:
But it came from...

Ian:
A literal term from something else. Yeah.

Pete:
I know these are the fascinating aspects of English and languages in general.

Ian:
We have culturally acquired it.

Pete:
It's, it's ours. Yeah. It's it's so funny. That's the biggest sort of thing that's hard. A lot of people, whenever I cover slang that is used in Australia, which I would call Australian slang because Australians use it.

Ian:
"That's not Australian, it's Irish!"

Pete:
Yeah. And you're like, oh, American or and it's like, look, this is semantics. All of it is English, right? Like ultimately, you know, like, unless, unless it originated 100% in your, you know, country or culture recently, then yes. But it is Australian slang in that it is used-

Ian:
In Australia. It might not have been invented in Australia.

Pete:
It would be like me going after Americans and saying, don't you say selfie. That's our word. Selfie was Australian.

Ian:
Yeah.

Pete:
You've appropriated it. All right. Well, there you go. So let us know in the comments or a message if you've heard any of these expressions before, or if there's any other slang terms you'd like us to cover in the future that you've probably heard out and about. And if you'd like to learn more slang, check out my Aussie Slang Dictionary, where you'll learn 1001 Australian slang words and expressions. Go to SlangEbook.com. The link will be in the description. So one more time www.SlangEbook.com. See you next time, guys.

Ian:
Bye!

Pete:
All right, that's it for today. If you found this one helpful, leaving a quick review really does help other learners find the podcast. And if you know someone who's learning Aussie English, feel free to share this episode with them too, mate. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you in the next one.