Kel Richards' Dictionary of Australian Phrase and Fable by Richards Kel;

Author:Richards, Kel;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of New South Wales Press
Published: 2012-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

H

Had the bean

Broken; doesn’t work any more; no use.

Ham and beef shop

A delicatessen is one of those (usually small) shops filled with all kinds of delightful food items. The Macquarie Dictionary defines it as: ‘a shop selling cooked or prepared goods ready for serving, usually having a noticeable proportion of continental or exotic items’. The word ‘delicatessen’ appears to have been coined in America in the late 19th century from a group of related words found in several European languages (including Greek and French) that originally meant ‘delicacies or relishes for the table’. That’s a name that seems to make sense, bearing in mind the range of stock such shops carry. However, the odd thing is that when I was a boy they weren’t called ‘delicatessens’ but ‘ham and beef shops’. Why this was so I have no idea, since they always sold a great deal more than just cooked and sliced ham and beef. The greengrocer is known as the ‘fruit and veg’ shop, but this fairly accurately describes his stock. Not so in the case of this odd expression, which is now largely obsolete. And the local delicatessen is now called the deli (hey, why bother to say more syllables than you have to?).

Hanrahan

See Said Hanrahan.

Happy as Larry

I’ve been asked more than once for the origin of the expression ‘as happy as Larry’ (meaning ‘very happy’). The source is not certain, but I’ll tell you what we know. In the first place, this is definitely an Australian term. It has spread around much of the world, but it started here. Sidney J. Baker, in his classic book The Australian Language says that while we can’t know for sure, it’s possible that it comes from an Australian boxer named Larry Foley (1849–1917). Why he was regarded as a happy pugilist is lost in the mists of time, but apparently he was. ‘Happy as Larry’ is first recorded in 1905, but was probably part of the spoken language well before that. There was an older expression, ‘a Larry Dooley’ or ‘a Larry Foley’, meaning a fight. And, I guess, if you liked a fight that would make you as happy as Larry.

Happy little Vegemite

Vegemite® is a popular salty spread Aussies eat on toast for brekkie; no one else in the world seems to like the stuff, so young Aussies are sometimes called ‘happy little Vegemites’ (and there was once an advertising jingle with these words as the refrain). (See also Vegemite®.)

Hashmagandy

A type of stew. First recorded in this sense as soldiers’ slang in World War I for ‘an insipid and monotonous army dish’. However, it may be older than that. In the colonial era old or sick animals (sheep, cattle, horses) were taken to a ‘boiling down factory’ where the fat was separated from the carcases to make tallow for candles. In 1893 ‘hashmagandy’ was used for the remainder of the animal’s carcase that was raked out of the bottom of the boiling-down vat at the end of the process. This, it seems, was fairly foul stuff.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.