WHAT'S IN A NAME, MATE?

A Sideways Glance at the Hidden Meaning of Aussie Place Names

There are many place names around the world that cry out to tell you their true meaning. Well, perhaps not their ridgey didge true meaning, but who has ever looked at the name Footscray and not felt that it probably also exists as an entry in a medical dictionary? Or Patchewollock, or Humpty Doo? Exactly.

This work attempts to do for (or to) Australian place names what Douglas Adams and John Lloyd did for Britain and the rest of the world, in The Meaning of Liff and The Deeper Meaning of Liff.

Words by Duncan Waldron, illustrations by Matt Davis.

Creative Commons License
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

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See Why am I doing this? for something approaching a motive.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Feluga - Fumar

Feluga n
The blatant lie present in the statement "There’s nothing worse..." It will be easy to show that piles, cancer and nuclear weapons are worse.

Fisherman’s Paradise n
The pub. The fishing is good, but at the end of the day, the pub’s where it’s at.

Fitzgerald n
Any collection of National Geographic magazine spanning at least 10 years with no gaps.

Five Ways n
Any road junction of at least 3 choices, without a signpost for any. [Also Four Ways.]

Footscray n (med)
A persistent infection below the toes, caused by constantly wearing the same smelly pair of cheap training shoes. cf Patchewollock.

Framlingham n
Nearly transparent parts of cold sliced meat, which resemble, but are not adequate replacement for, edible meat. Avoid them, for they are disappointingly like rubber bands, and have similar nutritional value.

Freeling v
Parking a car very carefully so as to take up a space that would actually have fitted two similar vehicles. cf Stony Pinch.

Fumar n
A solitary smoker who sits with teeth grimly clenched around their pipe, cigarette or cigar, in a place where smoking is not actually banned, but where not another soul approves of the practice. More than one Fumar has eventually been buried with their choice of smoke still clenched between locked jaws, having resolutely refused to give up their last remaining pleasure for anyone.

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