"A kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect"
The Kiwis have their way of saying things. At first, what they said didn’t really make much sense to me....and I remembered my face just went.....waaaaahhttt? I didn’t know how to respond. Most probably because I was not used to it.... After a few years of being here, I begin to understand the meaning behind those slang.
So let’s take a look at a few common ones:
Good as Gold: So this means a good job well done or not a problem
Sweet As: a term people say instead of "cool" or "awesome". For example if you say...’ see you in 10 mins?’ then you can reply, SWEET AS!
And so i notice as well that...some word have been added ‘as’ behind... such as ‘cool as’
Mad: Well if you open the dictionary, to most people, mad means angry...but to the Kiwis...it means CRAZY. To give you an example, ‘this party is mad! Means this party is crazy’
Ta: when I used to work in hospitality, I heard that word very often when customers came up to the counter to pay their bills. ‘ Ta, that was lovely’. Well, that means Thank you.
Before you try it, remember to use it appropriately...or you may embarrass yourself. Also, don’t overuse it....
A couple of years ago, one of my good mate (another word for friend that the Kiwi use) got excited about this whole Kiwi slang thing and she wanted to use it with every sentence! So at one time when somebody served her she responded back with, “Ta mate, sweet as pie” .....Ok so that didn’t make sense. Sweet as PIE? I am not quite sure how the word PIE got into it...but anyways, those words. TA, MATE and SWEET AS..should be use separately and not form the whole sentence because it will sound very strange believe me.
Can you think of any other Kiwi Slang that you have come across?
She arrived in a jiffy but left in a huff...
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