Anzac Slang

Winter 1915-1916

Our reference, in last month's Gazette, to the Australian fondness for the phrase 'Square Dinkum!' lends interest to the following communication from 'Transport Officer' in Gallipoli:

"A conversation I caught the other day might prove mystifying to the uninitiated.
'Hullo, chum! I've just heard some bonza news.'
'What! Another furfie?' 'No, dinkum oil this time; the boys have imshied the Turks on the right, and got fifty prisoners, who say they have had mafeesh tucker for two days.'
Half of it is Egyptian Arabic, picked up in Cairo, like the Gippy children's reiterated 'Give it baksheesh,' which the men are very fond of using.
'Bonza' corresponds with out 'ripping' or 'top-hole.' A 'furfie' is a rumour, and 'dinkum' means 'genuine,' and 'dinkum oil' means 'authenticated news.' 'Imshi' is Gippy for 'clear out' or 'get away,' and 'mafeesh,' which is borrowed from the same tongue, means 'nothing.' 'Tucker', of course, has the same meaning as our 'grub.'

When an Australian wishes to acquire something he 'shakes it,' whereas the British Tommy either 'makes it' or 'scrounges it,' in the same way as on a larger scale Government 'annex' things. Tommy's slang is largely derived from Hindustani, and includes such words as 'chipperow' for 'shut up,' 'put some jildi into it,' meaning 'hurry up,' and 'let's have a dekko,' when he wants to have a look at something.

'Pozzy' is jam; 'cherb' beer; 'rooty' bread; 'dough' money; 'jippo' gravy; 'muckim' butter; 'char' tea. 'Swinging the lead' is pretending or deceiving, while 'chucking his weight about' is self-explanatory, and denotes an aggressive or bullying manner. When an article is 'spare' it means that it is not wanted, or, more usually, if a man says he 'found it lying about spare,' it is a euphemistic way of saying that the owner did not happen to be looking after it at that moment."