Yeah, g'day, folks! Wildman here. A bit of a rough day for the Wildman, I'm down on the on the Adelaide River, I'll just out feeding crocodiles and my hat blew off. Brand new, 3-week-old Akubra. Just getting it nice, fitting on my head, starting to sit real good, and it blew off me head, big gust of wind, and a flipping crocodile ate it. I'm not overly impressed about this. Blew off my head, I throw up my hand and nearly caught it, but off it went into the water and a big crocodile, big 4... sorry, big 5-meter crocodile swam over and I ate the bloody thing. So, anyways. I'm pissed off.
G'day, guys and welcome to Aussie English. My objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Down Under. So, whether you want to speak 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.
G'day, guys! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English.
So, how are you going? What's going on? How is your weekend going? I've just gone out for lunch with my beautiful wife Kel, so we have been enjoying our last few weeks of freedom before the child arrives. I'm sure that's going to happen in the next week or two. So, yeah who knows how it's going to be after that, but fingers crossed it all goes well, it all goes to plan. Fingers crossed everything is smooth sailing, but only time will tell. Anyway, welcome to the podcast, guys. If it's your first time, thank you so much for joining us and if you are a returning listener, thank you so much for your support as well!
Guys, this is Aussie English, the number one podcast for anyone wanting to learn English, but also obviously Australian English. English from an Aussie perspective. You'll hear lots of Australian accents, you'll hear lots about the Aussie culture, but obviously it helps English in general as well.
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The intro scene there, guys, at the very start. The intro scene was from my friend Wild Man, now you can check him out on Facebook or Instagram just search out Wild Man on either of those two platforms and you'll find him. But I remember seeing this video a few years ago when his hat blew off his head into the water and a crocodile ate it. Now, go to his Facebook page follow the link in this transcript and you'll be able to actually see the footage of the crocodile eating his hat. And I'm also going to put a link in there for you to check out what happened after the event, ok? He may have been sorted out by a brand, a hat company in Australia called Akubra. I wonder if you've heard of this brand.
Anyway, we'll talk more about them in the Aussie English Fact, but before then let's get into the Aussie English joke for the day! So, the joke obviously I was thinking, alright, we're talking about things we wear today, like a hat, and the word wear is in the expression for today. So, I thought I'll try and find a joke about wearing things.
So, here's the joke: what does a house wear? What does a house wear, right? What does a house, the thing you live in, wear as clothing? What does a house wear? Address. You get it? A dress, right? Address, a dress. So, the joke here the word is spelt A-D-D-R-E-S-S, like every house has an address, right? You know, I live at number one, Long Street in New South Wales, that's an address, but if we were to split those words up a dress is the thing that a woman wears at say a wedding or a party, right? Or on a hot day she might wear a dress. What does a house wear? A dress.
That's a good pun!. Anyway. Today's expression guys is The Worse for Wear, the worse for wear. And now this comes from Alida, in the English Classroom, each week we suggest expressions, we vote on them and the winning expression, the one that gets the most votes is the one that I do for the Aussie English podcast. Well done, Alida! Now, you may hear the worse for wear as exactly that, the worse for wear, but you can also hear this in the negative. No worse for wear. Or you might hear none the worse for wear, ok? Before we go through what that means and how to use it, let's define the words in the expression worse for wear.
So, worse: if something is worse, it is in a poorer situation state or maybe a set of circumstances, right? So maybe I'm really good at tennis and my sister is worse than me at tennis, right? So she's not as good. She's poorer in that domain, right?
Or maybe I win a prize at a carnival and the rest of my friends do a lot worse. They don't win anything, right? Worse. Better/worse, worse is the opposite of better.
To wear something. Now this can mean a lot of different things and it can be used as a verb or a noun. If you wear something like that house was wearing a dress, right? You're putting clothes or decoration or protection on your body, right? To wear something. However, if you wear something a lot and it starts to deteriorate, we call that deterioration wear as well, right? As a noun. So, it's the damage or deterioration sustained from continuous use of something that is the wear.
So yesterday, for example, I bought some new shoes because my old shoes I had worn them a lot and as a result of wearing them a lot the bottoms of them, the soles of the shoes, had become damaged. They had deteriorated a lot. They were worn and there was a lot of wear on the bottom of them. So, in this case it's the noun wear, ok?
So, the expression the worse for wear. If something is the worse for wear or someone is the worst for wear, it's that they're tired or in poor condition because of a lot of work or use, right? So, the shoes that I replace yesterday I replaced them because they were the worse for wear, right? They had been worn down and they were in a much worser condition. If you're no worse for wear or none the worse for wear it is that you are not in any worse condition, despite rough treatment or despite being used, okay? And so, ultimately, it is that something is worn through use and to be no worse for wear or none the worse for wear is not worn through use.
So, despite being used, it hasn't been worn down. It hasn't accumulated a lot of wear. So, where did this expression originate? I was looking this up and it's actually quite an old one. So, according to John Heywood's a Dialogue Containing the Number in Effect of All Proverbs in the English Tongue, this is a very old book from the fifteen hundreds, worse for wear is one of the older phrases that was first in this book, in the first edition in the year 1546 in English and it was in there as: "All thing is the worse for wearing" meaning as things are used, they become worse, they deteriorate.
And as it became established in the language, worse for wear developed into a synonym for worn out. At this stage the variant none the worse for wear was coined meaning used, but not worn out and the English poet Charles Churchill used the expression in a rather backhand compliment to his wife in the poem The Ghost, in 1794. And here's the poem:.
Some in my place to gain their ends.
Would give relations up and friends.
Would lend a wife who they might swear.
Safely was none the worse for wear.
Once we arrived in the 20th century however the expression worse for wear took on a different meaning, meaning drunk. So, it can actually mean that too and this was taken up in the UK tabloid press in the 1960s and is now often a euphemism for talking about someone who is waking up or surviving a big night out and they're hungover, right? They're a little worse for wear. Anyway, let's go through some examples of how I would use the expression worse for wear, none the worse for wear or no worse for wear.
So, example number one: you're a kid playing in your family front yard, right? The family house you're in the front yard and you're playing around. I remember doing this as a kid and I used to have a plastic motorbike that I used to ride up and down the driveway. I used to hurtle up and down the concrete driveway at breakneck speeds or at least what seemed like breakneck speeds, they probably weren't very fast speeds, but yeah as a little kid they felt like it, I was turning around and one day I remember that there were rocks on the concrete and I was riding up and down and one of the pebbles or small stones rocks got caught under my wheel and caused me to crash the bike.
So, I went flying into the concrete. My dad ran over and picked me up, probably whilst I was crying, a little upset, a little shocked, but he saw I wasn't hurt. I wasn't any worse for wear. I was ok, I wasn't harmed, I was no worse for wear, but the bike was probably worse for wear. You know, it probably had a big hole in its tyre after that.
Number two: you're going away on holidays and you have some teenage children and they're staying at home. They're living in your house and they're planning to have a party with some friends. You tell them that they can do that, but that they can't trash the house, right? Or else I'll be grounded for the rest of their lives and pay for all the damages to be fixed. So, you reckon your chances are maybe 50/50 that they'll behave themselves and do as you say, but you decide you still want to go away on your hard-earned holiday with your wife.
Maybe you're going to the Great Barrier Reef. Maybe you're going to Uluru, maybe going to Wilson's Prom, somewhere nice, somewhere exotic, somewhere far away. You do that. You have a great time whilst you're away and then when you head home, when you come back and walk in the door, you find the house is none the worse for wear. So, everything's ok. The kids had their party, but they looked after the house. Everything's in really good nick. The house looks squeaky clean there's nothing wrong with it. So, the house was none the worse for wear when you came home.
Example number three: now I remember back when I handed my PhD in, I think it was the end of 2017, I remember going to a local pub later that day after I handed it in at the Museum Museum Victoria in Melbourne. So, I'd handed it in, I'd submitted it online and I wanted to celebrate. So, we... I took all the other students that I knew out, we went to a local pub in Carlton in Melbourne and we drank a lot and got pretty plastered. I remember having to walk home late at night and because I was a bit of a tight arse, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on say a taxi or an Uber, I decided that maybe it's better I walk home, right? You know, I was drunk, I thought by the time I get home I'll have sobered up, I'll feel a little better so, I'll just walk it, you know, it's only an hour so, when I eventually got home about an hour later I stumbled inside and was a little worse for wear, right?
I was worn out, I was tired, I was drunk, I was in worse condition, I was wrecked, I hit the hay pretty much straight away, I was worse for wear and when I woke up in the morning I was still pretty worse for wear, I still had a hangover.
So, hopefully now you guys understand the expression the worse for wear meaning worn through use, right? In a worse condition or in the negative no worse for wear or none the worse for wear meaning not worn through use, right? Not in a worse condition.
So, as usual, let's go through a little listen and repeat exercise where you guys can practice your pronunciation. Now, if you are working on your pronunciation in English, guys, I really recommend getting in and doing my pronunciation course in the Aussie English classroom. There are dozens of videos in there to teach you all the different vowels in English, all the different consonants in English. You'll get to hear minimal pairs, so those tricky sounds that sounds similar. You'll get trained so that you can distinguish them and you can pronounce them, especially things like the V and the F or the two different types of TH. I know they're really hard, but get in there and check it out it's a really, really good course, ok? www.AussieEnglish.com.au, you can try it for a dollar. Anyway, let's get into the exercise, guys! So, repeat after me.
No
No worse
No worse for
No worse for wear x 5
Good job! Now, did you notice there. For, wear.... I'm not saying the R in those words and the same for worse, right? That's that Australian accent. In all those cases, there's no vowel after the R so, we don't pronounce it. No worse for wear. No worse for wear. And you'll notice too the word FOR gets demphasized, it gets reduced and the vowel sound instead of or becomes an a, schwa vowel sound. Ok? No worse for wear. It's kind of sped over, for wear, for wear, no worse for wear. So, let's keep going.
Tomorrow I'll be no worse for wear.
Tomorrow you'll be no worse for wear.
Tomorrow he'll be no worse for wear.
Tomorrow she'll be no worse for wear.
Tomorrow we'll be no worse for wear.
Tomorrow they'll be no worse for wear.
Tomorrow it'll be no worse for wear.
Well done, guys! Well done! I know that was long. I put the word in there tomorrow because when we practice future tenses or past tenses it's good to have a bit of context so, that you know which period of time you're thinking about and you can better learn these tenses, ok? So, that's why I said Tomorrow I will, I'll, I'll be no worse for wear etc.
Now, you may notice too when you go back over that that the L sound is changed, instead of... It sounds like...the dark L. Ok? And that's because there's no vowel after that L sounds we pronounce it like a reverse w, right? W is... And the dark L is ....
So, anyway, if you want to know more about that guys, check out my pronunciation courses and level up your English pronunciation.
So, let's dive into the Aussie Fact for the day, guys.
So, I was sitting there and I was thinking what can I talk about? The expression is worse for wear. We're talking about things that we wear and then I thought ok, wearing hats in Australia is pretty common. So, I thought today we could talk about two kinds of hats in Australia, first and foremost, the brand Akubra which is arguably Australia's most famous hat making company, Akubra and then also the military slouch hat that you will see our troops wearing. So, let's first go through the history of Akubra. It's got an interesting history.
In 1874, a man named Benjamin Dunkerley made the voyage from England to Tasmania in Australia and he decided to open a hat making company in Hobart. Not only was he a talented hat maker, but he also had very good skills in inventing machinery and soon after his arrival Down Under, in Australia, he had developed a machine for removing the hair tips from rabbit fur so, that it could be used in felt hat making. This facilitated the hat making process as previously it was a task that had to be done by hand.
In the early 1900s, Dunkerley relocated the company to Crown Street in Surry Hills, an inner suburb of Sydney and he set up a small hat making factory there.
In 1904, a man named Stephen Keir who was also fresh off the boat from England, recently arriving Down Under, joined Dunkerley. Keir had experience hat making as well back in England and was quickly acquired by the business as a result.
In 1905, he married Dunkley's daughter, Ada, and was soon after made the company's General Manager. That's definitely a quick way to get to the top. From that time on the hat making business has been handed down through five generations in the Keir family.
In 1911, the company was named Dunkerley Hat Mills Ltd, having a mere 19 employees at the time and the following year, in 1912, the trade name Akubra came into use. Increasing popularity of the Akubra hats meant the company had to move to larger premises on Bourke Street in Waterloo and production expanded, particularly during World War I, as countless slouch hats were made for the Australian troops. And soon after this all hats were branded Akubra.
So, side note: the slouch hat is a wide brimmed felt hat often with a chin strap. It was first introduced into Australia in 1885, although it traces its military use back to Austrian skirmishers who wore the black Korsehut or 'Corsican hat', historically used by the Austrian army during the Napoleonic Wars.
The Australian slouch hat, a.k.a. Australian bush hat or Digger hat, has been standard issue headwear for the Australian and New Zealand military since World War I. The Army refers to the slouch hat by its official designation Hat khaki fur felt or HKFF, but to everyone else it's the slouch hat. The word slouch refers to the slopping brim, the brim that bends down and it's made from rabbit fur felt or wool felt and is always worn with a puggaree.
Australia's take on the slouch hat is distinctive due to one side of the brim being turned up or pinned to the side of the hat with a Rising Sun badge or General Service badge pinned to the side that allows the wearer to sling a rifle over his shoulder.
A seven-band puggaree circles the outside of the hat where six bands represent Australia's states and the seventh band represents its territories.
So, my earliest memory of these hats and seeing these hats was my grandfather wearing one that he had received as a boy when he was training in the Army Reserve during World War II and he still has this hat to this very day.
Anyway, back to Akubra.
When Dunkerley died in 1925, Stephen Keir the first inherited the business, which continued to flourish for many years afterwards. When Stephen retired in 1952, his eldest son Herbert succeeded him as Managing Director. His second son Stephen Keir the Second served as General Manager and eventually took over as Managing Director in 1972.
In 1980, Stephen Keir the Third became Managing Director and then pass the baton on to his son Stephen Keir the Fourth who became Managing Director in 2007. So, the family tradition continues and it seems whoever is Managing Director in the future is likely to have the name Stephen.
And the Akubra hat factory is now based on the mid-north coast of New South Wales in the town of Kempsey having relocated from Sydney in 1974.
So, their hats are handcrafted, taking up to six weeks to make from start to finish, going through 162 steps, handled 200 times, and passing through at least 60 pairs of workers hands.
You can pick up a genuine Akubra hat online or at many stores around the country for one or two hundred dollars. They're pretty good quality and there are now many different styles, most of which are wide-brimmed hats used for keeping the hot Aussie sun off the heads and necks of farmers and workers in rural Australia.
Anyway, guys, thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you got a lot out of this episode!
Definitely go check out Wildman via Facebook or Instagram and also go check out these Akubra hats as if you're travelling around the country. It's always good to keep the sun off your head and neck, ok? And it's a genuine Aussie hat, check it out!
Anyway, thanks again. I hope you have a great weekend and I'll chat to you soon. Peace!
G'day, mate! Thanks for listening to the Aussie English podcast! if you'd like to boost your English whilst also supporting the podcast and allowing me to continue to bring you awesome content every single week, please consider joining the Aussie English Classroom at www.AussieEnglish.com.au and start your one dollar trial today, you'll get unlimited access to the premium podcast as well as all of my advanced English courses and you'll also be able to join three weekly speaking calls with a real English teacher. Thanks so much, mate! And I'll see you soon!