Take your goon sack to the footy? You’re speaking Aussie

An update to the Oxford English Dictionary suggests the English think we’re all a bunch of booze-drinking, footy ­obsessives Down Under.

The Oxford English Dictionary has included ‘goon’ or ‘goon bag’. Picture: iStock

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This isn’t entirely surprising but it seems the English think we’re all a bunch of booze-drinking footy ­obsessives, Down Under.

That’s one inference from the latest update to the Oxford Eng­lish Dictionary, which includes 11 new words or phrases from “Australian English”. Three are related to football, three to getting drunk.

The OED said it had decided to include “goon” or “goon bag”, which refer to “a plastic, foil-lined pouch in which inexpensive wine is sold”.

The fine tradition of taking a swig from a goon sack is now recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary.

The bladder for your mum’s chardy in other words, which can also be used as a pillow, as any self-respecting drunk knows.

The Oxford types say “goon” is “probably shortened from flagoon”, which is itself short for flagon, “a word that was formerly used in Australia and New Zealand to denote a large, typically half-gallon, returnable jar in which drink was sold”.

For those who can’t come at drinking from a goon bag, they also included the more genteel “cask”, which can describe the box around the bladder (which was, fun fact, invented in South Australia). They also added “slab”, which refers to a “retail pack of beer, typically containing 24 cans or ­bottles”. Easy to carry, good to share.

Next up, “spew” without necessarily linking it to the slab, or even the goon. “In Australian Eng­lish, the verb ‘spew’ (1980) is used colloquially … to mean that someone is bitterly disappointed or very annoyed about something. An Australian who says they are ‘absolutely spewing’ means they are devastated or angry.”

Or sick as a dog, obviously.

The new football terms include “carn” as “an exclamation you’re likely to hear during an Australian rules football or rugby league match, as Australian fans urge on their favourite team”.

They say it’s a “colloquial pronunciation of ‘come on!’ ” and should be seen as an expression of our “enthusiasm for sports”.

Patrick Cripps of the Blues can now find a description for his medal – “best and fairest” – in the Oxford English Dictionary. Picture: Getty Images

The update also includes “best and fairest”, which refers to “an Australian rules football or rugby league player who wins any of various awards given for a combination of exceptional performance and good sportsmanship”.

Then you’ve got a “don’t argue”, which is described as “a colloquial term for a push or blow to the face … delivered to fend off a potential tackler, using the arm held out straight from the body”. Maybe they could just include a picture of Dusty Martin?

Don’t argue: a move made iconic by Dustin Martin also made the dictionary. Picture: Michael Klein

Two Aboriginal-English words are included in the update: “custodian”, “a term used for an Australian Aboriginal person who is recognised as having ­certain ancestral rights to, and traditional obligations, responsibilities and authority for a particular area of land and community”.

“Balanda” makes the dictionary as a noun, dating back to 1898. It was used by Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory to describe a white person, “or white people collectively”.

“Balanda is a loan word from the Yolngu language of northeast Arnhem Land, which itself was borrowed from the Makasarese language of South Sulawesi province in Indonesia, or from a similar form in a related language,” the OED says.

“The Makasarese balanda comes either directly from the Dutch word Hollander or from the Malay word belanda, meaning ‘Dutch’ or ‘European’, itself a borrowing from the Javanese welanda or walanda, which again was loaned from the Portuguese Holanda, which ultimately originates in the Dutch word Holland.”

The update also includes the word “gunzel”, which, we’re told, is “Australian slang for a person who loves trams or trains”.

It’s apparently borrowed from the Yiddish word “gendzl”, which came to mean “a young male companion of a vagrant, especially one who is made use of as a sexual partner”. How it came to mean “tram or train enthusiast” in Melbourne is anyone’s guess.

The update also includes ­“regional” as an “adjective applied to anything … away from major cities”. It says “this includes everything outside of the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Canberra”.

The full list of Australian Eng­lish words added in the update is here:

balanda
best and fairest
carn
cask
custodian
don’t argue
goon
gunzel
regional
slab
spew