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.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Garah Common - Gerang Gerung

Garah Common n
An area authorised for the keeping of sacrificial goats.

Gapsted n, v
1. n The location, as yet undiscovered but suspected to lie somewhere beyond the orbit of Saturn, where the contents of millions of wage packets mysteriously disappear to, on Friday night.
2. v (Past tense) When you have been beaten to a parking space while fumbling for reverse, you have been Gapsted.

Garangula n
The desire to immediately respond to a Feluga (qv) with a long list of things that quite evidently are worse.

Geengee n
The sort of frantic laughter that degenerates into rapid, silent gasping. In 1927, an entire Welsh village perished through asphyxiation as a result of a prolonged bout of Geengee. The precise reason was never discovered, but is thought to have been either sheep, or lost English tourists.

Gelantipy n
The unsettling conviction held by a small child that their drawing represents a particular animal, and that they will still instantly recognise it three months later.

Gelorup n
The sound of baked beans leaving the tin in one moist, solid mass.

Gelorup

Gerang Gerung v
To make a complete mess of grammar.

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