Bonzer

January 23, 2010, 15:13

Geoff

Bonzer

This is supposedly an Australian expression meaning "excellent," or some such, but I've never heard it. Is it still in use?

January 23, 2010, 16:23

zmježd

Quinion's opinion (link).

quote:
Like the others, it is dated — only dunny and dinkum are now much heard in everyday speech.

January 23, 2010, 16:41

<Proofreader>

Secret agent double oh seven, is that you?
Yes, it's bonzer.

January 23, 2010, 17:54

Geoff

Bedtime for Bonzer? Didn't that star Ronald Reagan?

January 24, 2010, 18:10

Kalleh

In that Quinion link, he refers to some other Australian words, including dinkum , which apparently means "real." The story is that it's from Chinese words, din gum, meaning "real gold" in Chinese. Yet, that most likely is what Quinion calls "folk etymology."

January 25, 2010, 03:21

zmježd

The story is that it's from Chinese words, din gum, meaning "real gold" in Chinese. Yet, that most likely is what Quinion calls "folk etymology."

quote:
Dinkum or fair dinkum means "true", "the truth", "speaking the truth", "authentic" and related meanings, depending on context and inflection. It is often claimed that dinkum was derived from the Cantonese (or Hokkien) ding kam, meaning "top gold", during the Australian goldrushes of the 1850s. This, however, is chronologically improbable since dinkum is first recorded in the 1890s. Scholars give greater credence to the notion that it originated with a now-extinct dialect word from the East Midlands in England, where dinkum (or dincum[/[i]i]) meant "hard work" or "fair work", which was also the original meaning in Australian English. (link)

I found it in a dictionary of English dialects of Lincolnshire (LINK): Fair-dinkum, that which is just and equitable. Seems to me a better explanation than the Cantonese one.