Australian National Dictionary 2nd Edition. Author's photo. When I was a teacher, an unfamiliar student approached me in the schoolyard during play lunch, or the mid-morning break. “Is it true you read the dictionary for fun?” he enquired. His response to my positive answer was, “You're a sick man!” You've been warned. Over the years, Global Voices editors and translators have wondered about some of the words in my posts. For those struggling with or just interested in ‘Australianisms’, the updated Australian National Dictionary may be a timely addition to your library. To most English-speaking people, Australian English, otherwise known as Strine, must seem like a foreign language. Take the sentence below: Any true blue, dinkum Aussie battler from Astraya's Deep North knows that Canberrans are really Mexicans. Translation: Any genuine Australian from Northern Queensland knows that residents of Canberra, the national capital, are from south of the border (and hence inferior). Interstate or regional rivalry down under is present in a lot of Australian English terms (both geographical references in the sentence above carry derogatory connotations). For example, Taswegians, who are from the southern island state of Tasmania, are proud of their contributions to the Australian National Dictionary, and as such their bragging might qualify them as a ‘yaffler’, or a loudmouth. Taswegians view the rest of Australia as ‘mainlanders': Tourism pitch to ‘save a mainlander’ – ABC News (Australian … http://t.co/WiQVsXDT — Manny Papadoulis (@TourismSMM) June 4, 2012 Two new additions to the dictionary are related to Australia's capital, Canberra: ‘Canberran’ is a person from Canberra, and ‘Canberra bashing’ is somewhat of a national political pastime. The local chief minister had a message to the online oligarchs to fix their spellcheckers: Canberran has finally made it to the dictionary but it's time for that underline to go #Microsoft #Apple #Twitter pic.twitter.com/ND10ElyjwB — Andrew Barr (@ABarrMLA) August 23, 2016 Another Canberra politician, member of the House of Representatives Andrew Leigh, helped launch the second edition of the dictionary, 28 years after the first. In his remarks, he highlighted some of the phrases that made it into the publication: He also pointed out some of the Indigenous words that now feature, such as ‘gubinge’, which is a type of plum, and ‘migaloo’, meaning a white person. ‘Migaloo’ is only one of over 500 words from 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, as Australian National Dictionary editor Bruce Moore explained on news and analysis site The Conversation in a post titled ‘Do you know a Bunji from a Boorie? Meet our dictionary’s new Indigenous words’. While all these entries are touted as ‘new’, many are only new to the dictionary. During the 1960s, for example, my father claimed that he always wrote ‘callithumpian’ as his religion on the Census form. The ‘OS’ (overseas) Twitterverse seemed obsessed with one favourite Oz (Australian) put-down: “That’s right. Australia is the home of the fuckwit.” By @superlinguo at @Slate https://t.co/J0jmF9peTo — Laura Helmuth (@laurahelmuth) September 24, 2016 There are plenty more insults. My preferences are ‘dropkick’ (a sports term that rhymes with ‘prick’ and is used to mean the same) and ‘dickhead’. In addition to the media's favourite ‘bogan’ (an uncultured and unsophisticated person), there are heaps of terms for people with shades of meaning, such as ‘dag’ (a nerd), ‘hoon’ (a lout) and ‘tall poppy’ (a prominent or successful person). A ‘stunned mullet’ (dazed expression) is a visual delight. Recent prime ministers have been the focus for some of our local vernacular. Julia Gillard achieved this memorable cartoon title: Head Ranga (redhead) in sanger [sandwich] clanger! (Aussies can't claim ‘clanger’. It's British in origin, meaning glaring mistake or embarrassing remark.) Her successor Tony Abbott gained an international audience for the sports term ‘shirtfront‘ (an Australian Rules football term for illegally charging an opponent head-on) and ‘budgie smugglers’ (close fitting swimming briefs). Even the New York Times has been charmed by this weighty tome. The Australian National Dictionary's two volumes are 4.54 kilos (10 lbs) and contain 1,864 pages. There are now 16,000 entries. An Australian dictionary has added 6,000 popular terms. Test your kwoedge. https://t.co/OANh5Inlp0 pic.twitter.com/XSuT3hCntC — New York Times World (@nytimesworld) August 24, 2016 Another contribution from sport is ‘falcon’ (an accidental hit on the head by the ball). Its etymology or origin involves a rugby league footballer of Maltese background.