TikTok user explains Aussie slang word – but people have never heard of it

A TikTok user shared a video explaining where an Aussie term came from – but many said they’d “never heard it” before. Have you?

After living in Australia for the best part of a decade, I’m still amazed at how many new slang words I encounter on a regular basis.

Not that long ago I stumbled across the term “eshay” – not too dissimilar to the British term “chav” I grew up with. Not long after, a scroll on TikTok revealed a quintessentially Aussie pastime of a “shower beer” – who knew having a cold one while standing under a stream of water was a thing? I do now.

But my most recent discovery was a completely new one – and it turns out, lots of Aussies had never heard of it either.

Enter “Cadbury”, a term coined Down Under for someone who is a “cheap drunk”, according to Urban Dictionary.

RELATED: Hilarious Aussie slang words that baffle foreigners

A TikTok user created an explainer of an Aussie slang word she has used for years. Picture: TikTok

But it turned out not many Australians had heard of the term ‘Cadbury’. Picture: TikTok

The joys of this piece of Aussie vernacular entered my life when TikTok user @minorfauna – whose real name is Abbey Hansen – shared a video explaining where it came from.

“I’ve got a PSA for my fellow Australians,” she begins, adding she wasn’t sure if they use the term in other countries (they don’t, FYI).

“But when somebody gets really drunk easily here we refer to them as ‘Cadbury’ like as in Cadbury chocolate,” she said.

However, Abbey said she had always been confused about where the term came from, saying “it doesn’t make sense”.

So she’d turned detective, revealing to TikTok users that it came from the confectionary company’s slogan “a glass and a half” – meaning a Cadbury only needs that much alcohol to get drunk.

It comes from the chocolate block’s glass and a half slogan and means somebody who gets drunk easily. Picture: TikTok

But while Abbey’s video was designed to help explain the mystery of where the word came from – many said they’d “never heard it before”.

Streams of comments from people all over Australia flooded the post declaring it was a revelation.

“I’m Aussie and I’ve never heard of that,” one wrote.

“Rural Australian here and never heard this term before,” another said.

“I live in Sydney and I’ve never heard the term,” someone else mused.

One person asked where Abbey was from as they’d never come across the word, with Abbey revealing she grew up in Northern NSW/Queensland.

However, people from Adelaide, WA and Queensland vouched for the word saying it is commonly used in their states.

“We use this term in Adelaide. Glass and a half,” one woman said.

“Been using it since I was a teenager. I’m 56 and in WA,” another wrote.

Australians declared they had ‘never heard’ of it. Picture: TikTok

While another claimed it was “boomer slang”.

“Not kidding, ask your parents/grandparents,” she claimed.

In response, Abbey said she tried to “locate its origin” but failed, writing “some people have heard it, some haven’t”.

Do you use the term? Let us know in the comments below.

Continue the conversation @RebekahScanlan | [e-mail]