It’s no secret that New Zealand has its own, unique ‘language.’ One of my favourite lecturers at university was sea captain who’d grown up in Yorkshire in the UK. One day he was explaining how you go about communicating with ships over radio. ‘I don’t know what language it is they speak here, but it isn’t English!’ he grumbled. I hid a smile of agreement. Chances are you’ve already heard of the stereotypical Kiwi words like chur, chilly bin, jandals, and sweet as, but believe me when I say these are the tip of the iceberg. Rural New Zealand slang can be hard to decipher. Below are the meanings of words and phrases you may encounter. Know a word that’s not on this list? Comment below!
B is for bach
Bach (n): a holiday house with basic facilities in a scenic location, usually near the beach. In the South Island, the term crib is often used, although bach still tends to be used close to the coast.
Billy (n): the name for an uncastrated, adult, male goat. A castrated male is a wether, while an adult female is affectionately called a Nanny (Nanny-goat). Also refers to a camping billy, a pot/kettle for boiling water.
Blacksmith (n): a humorous term for a bad cook (presumably because they have a tendency to burn food).
Bugger (n/adj): used as an expletive to demonstrate annoyance (that’s a bugger!), or crude term used to describe a person (old-bugger, nosey-bugger, tough-bugger).
Bugger-all (adj): nothing (I’ve done bugger-all today).
C is for carked-it
Carked-it (adj): died, stopped working (the tractor sounds like it has carked-it).
Cattle-stop (n): a metal grate in the ground used instead of a gate to stop stock from leaving a paddock (the car always shakes when it drives over the cattle-stop).
Chocka-block, chockers (adj): completely full, overflowing (the carpark is chocka-block).
Chooks (n): chickens.
Collie-dog (n): a breed of dog called the border collie, commonly used as sheepdogs in NZ.
Crack-up (adj): something or somebody who is hilariously funny (he’s a crack-up).
Cripe-hounds (n): dogs, a term used by old-school musterers/shepherds.
Crook: (adj) sick, ill (Daisy the sheep looks a bit crook) or (n) a scoundrel, offender, untrustworthy person (I’ve heard the shopkeeper is a crook).
Crutching (v): the removal of wool around the backside of a sheep to prevent them from becoming fly-blown (Trev and the gang are out crutching at the moment).
D to G: dag to gumboots
Dag (n): a likeable, quirky person (he’s such a dag). Alternatively, dags are also known as the excrement that clings to a sheep’s backside (which is why they need crutching).
Dodgy (adj): something that is unreliable, suspicious or otherwise amiss (the engine sounds dodgy).
Eye-dog (n): a hound that controls sheep by holding them with a stare.
Facial eczema (n): a medical condition that afflicts sheep, cattle, goats, deer, llamas and alpacas. FE is caused by sporidesmin, a toxin produced from the spores of the fungus Pithomyces chartarum.
Fieldays (n): popular agricultural convention with stalls, events, tractor-pulling and fencing competitions etc. (oi, do you want to come to the Fieldays this weekend?)
Gumboots (n): rubber boots that rise above the ankle. It is customary to leave muddied gumboots outside.
H to K: high country to knackered
High country (n): areas of land that occupy tussock-clad alpine regions, hilly/steep land in the back of beyond (she lives on a station in the high country).
Hogget (n): a young sheep, between weaning and first shearing.
Huntaway (n): a special breed of dog originating from Hunterville (Louise is out training her new huntaway-cross).
Kaiwakas (n): rubber/plastic overalls often used in farming (you’ll need your Kaiwaka’s when working with the cattle).
Kea’d (adj): a sheep that has been attacked by kea (a kea’d sheep is not a pretty sight mate).
Kid (n): a juvenile goat (the kids are grazing in the back paddock).
Knackered (adj): extremely tired (gees, I’m bloody knackered today).
M to R: mozzie to rust-bucket
Mozzie (n): mosquito (blast, I’m getting bitten by damn mozzies!)
Muster (v), musterer (n): stock driving (v), stock driver (n). Refers to the activity of moving stock like sheep or cattle from one place to the next. There are a number of roles for musterers, such as the ‘hill man,’ ‘dog driver,’ ‘gullyraker’ and ‘scree scrambler.’
Mutton (n): the meat of a fully grown sheep (it’s mutton stew for dinner tonight). In terms of living sheep: a ram is a male, a wether is a castrated male, a ewe is a female, whereas a hogget or lamb is a juvenile.
Nosey-bugger (n): somebody who likes to pry into other people’s affairs (our new neighbour is a bit of a nosey-bugger).
Pigtail (n): curled rods on fences which can be used to position electric wire.
Piss (n), pissed (adj): alcohol (n), drunk (adj) (Michelle was totally pissed last night).
Rust bucket (n): a decrepit, unsightly vehicle (their car is a complete rust-bucket, but it only cost 2 grand).
S to T: shearing to the big dry
Shearer (n), shearing (v): shearing is when wool is cut from sheep using electric or manual hand shears.
Snow-raking (v): rescuing sheep stuck in snow drifts (Terry had to go snow-raking yesterday to find that ewe).
Shemozzle (n): a race for shepherds commonly held at the annual Hunterville Huntaway Festival.
Stoked (adj): extremely pleased (I was stoked to win the raffle last night).
Suss (adj): suspicious, dodgy, unsafe (the new fence looks a bit suss to me).
Swandri (n): a woollen shirt or jacket of the NZ Swandri brand.
The big…. (n): the big dry = drought, the big snow = snowstorm, the big wet = floods. Commonly used by farmers.
Rural New Zealand slang: more resources
Want to learn more New Zealand slang words?
See Te Ara for this great article on New Zealand Rural Slang and language.
Comment your favourite Kiwi phrase or saying below!
Some more interesting articles:
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