Another one of those language usage puzzlers. Aussies are a people known to cut down perfectly harmless nouns that were just wandering around the English language doing no harm to anyone, and so in these parts the people who come and empty your dustbin are garbos, the people who'd put it out if it caught alight are the firies and the people who have charity shops where you can get rid of stuff that's too good to be put in your burning bin are The Salvos. In its most extreme form this can go as far as identifying something with a single letter - ask any Melburnian what 'The G' is and you'll see what I mean.
So why the hell do they insist on calling a kettle an electric jug?
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ReplyDeleteSpamming mongbots, doncha just love 'em.
ReplyDeleteDo they call Viagra tablets 'stiffoes' over there?
ReplyDeleteI suspect the answer will be that Aussie men don't have to take them, so there's no point mangling a word for them... ;)
ReplyDeleteRob, not heard that one but wouldn't surprise me. JuliaM, quite the reverse: you can be sitting there watching TV and mentally switching off in the ad breaks when suddenly you'll hear 'do you suffer from erectile disfunction?' and there are billboards up on more than one major road advertising products that supposedly fix premature ejaculation and enable the user to bang away all night like the most legendary of stunt cocks. Doesn't sound like Australian men are the world's best lovers, eh?
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