AE 1006 - Aussie Slang: Billy

Learn Australian English in each of these episodes of the Aussie English Podcast.

This is the Aussie Slang series where I teach you slang that is commonly used Down Under

In today's episode...

Learn Australian English in this episode of the Aussie Slang series where I teach you how to use Australian slang - like a fair dinkum Australian!

I am going to teach you the Aussie slang word "billy".

Well, here's a fun slang word to learn about - the word "billy" can have 2 meanings!

No, it's not a nickname for some guy named William.

Learn what it means and how you can use it in your daily conversations.

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Transcript of AE 1006 - Aussie Slang: Billy

G'day, you mob. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. I am your host, Pete, and this is another free episode in the Aussie slang series where I teach you, you guessed it, Australian slang terms and words that we use down under. So, today I'm going to be teaching you the word "billy, billy". And this is a two for one.

You're going to get two definitions for this word, two ways to use this word for just obviously the one word, "billy". Okay, so the first one is that if you go camping and you set up a fire, you may put a tin pot- I think it's tin. A metal pot over the fire with water in it to heat the water up for tea, for coffee, for food. The thing that you put that water into is called a "billy" in Australian English, a "billy".

Effectively, it is the simplest way to boil water when you are camping, you use a "billy". The other way to use this is to talk about a bong. Right. The utensil that people use to smoke cannabis. This is obviously used all over the world, the utensil. But in Australia, the bong, it's called a bong, but it can also be referred to as a "billy".

I think that this is because we have the word Billabong, which is the brand for surfing, but also a water hole in Australian English and bong obviously being the last part of that word, they've taken the front part of the word, "billy", to refer to the same thing, a bong. Anyway, strange coincidence there with these two words. They don't- Well, the definitions don't have anything to do with one another. Right.

One of them is related to camping. The other one is related to illicit drugs. But the more you know. Okay. So yeah, you might go camping, put the tin pot, the "billy" on the fire to heat up some water so that you can have some tea. And then all of a sudden you look over and, in the bushes, there's some young kid smoking cannabis out of a "billy", right, out of a bong in the bushes for some reason whilst you're camping. I don't know.

That was the example that came to mind. Anyway, guys, that is it for today. Remember, if you want to get access to all of the other Aussie slang episodes, go check out the podcast. And remember that I release a second episode every single week for members only of the premium podcast. So, you can check that out above if you'd like to become a member.

You'll get access to at least twenty- Twenty or more different episodes for the Aussie slang series, but also 950 different Aussie English podcast episodes, their transcripts, everything like that. So, go check it out. Besides that, I'm Pete, this is Aussie English. Thanks for joining me. See you next time.