Lexical Compendium

Wait... what is this? Sometimes I come across a word, phrase, idiom, quote, reference, bit of slang, person of interest, etc that either I don't know or I find amusing, interesting, etc. This is a collection of those items so that I can refer back to them in emails, texts, etc.

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chookas

The word chookas is Australian slang and something performers traditionally say to each other to wish luck before a show. It's similar to the expression "break a leg."

Chook is Aussie slang for chicken. One explanation for how chookas came to be used in the performing arts is that if there was a full house, the theater company could afford a chicken dinner.

Other sources seem to indicate that it was originally pronounced choogas was was an abbreviation of the phrase "cheers and good wishes."

I first came across the word chookas while watching Deadloch (S1, E6).


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Tags: slang, vocabulary, aussie

Date Added: 01 Oct 2024

argy-bargy

Argy-bargy is British slang for the kind of back-and-forth that accompanies a vigorous argument.

When my brother and I discuss politics, there's always a bit of argy-bargy.

Argy-bargy and the similar argle-bargle appear to have originated in Scottish slang. One can clearly see that the first part of the rhyming pair is formed from the word argue and the second is nonsense... or mumbo-jumbo. This type of word is what's known as a rhyming reduplication (other examples are mumbo-jumbo or okey-dokey).

I first encountered this term while listening to the Aussie host of the podcast Risky Business (#758).


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References:

Tags: slang, vocabulary

Date Added: 18 Aug 2024