Dictionary records 10,000 ways to spin a Kiwi yarn

By MICHAEL DALY

The 1400-page New Zealand Oxford Dictionary being launched today includes more than 10,000 words originating in this country and 100,000 words from elsewhere in the world.

Users will be left in no doubt about the meanings of such phrases as living in the wop-wops, going for a warrant of fitness, confronting a curly problem, taking the Fendalton tractor on a tiki tour, going blackwater rafting at mates' rates, attending a powhiri, or dissing the dibbly-dobbler.

Visitors will be able to understand the frequency with which the word jafa - just another ******* Aucklander - is used in a somewhat derisory tone, as well as knowing who ronz - rest of New Zealand (excluding Aucklanders) - are.

And if anyone with a gingery complexion is called an amber gambler, they can confirm it's a tendency to drive through orange traffic lights that is being referred to, not their hair colour.

A joint venture between Oxford University Press and Victoria University's New Zealand Dictionary Centre, the $130 publication was put together during the past four years.

Centre manager and lexicographer Dr Dianne Bardsley, a contributing editor to the dictionary, said the New Zealand words had come from a database at the centre which had 36,000 entries.

For a word to be included in the dictionary it needed to have been cited at least three times, preferably written, but use in a broadcast could also be acceptable.

"Words like waka jumper, for example, and Wine Box which in lower case letters now means a tax evasion technique."

Words that might only be "oncers" were kept in a "holding pen" and could be included in a future edition of the dictionary if they were used more in future.

Examples were stilt people and Ngati Aorere - cloud piercer - for both of which one citation was known to describe people more commonly referred to as tall poppies.

Some words that had referred to just a specific incident and were not expected to be used more widely, such as corngate, had not been included in the dictionary, Dr Bardsley said.

According to the co-editors, dictionary centre senior editor Tony Deverson and Emeritus Professor Graeme Kennedy, a striking characteristic of New Zealand English is the increasingly strong influence of the Maori language.

"About six words in every 1000 in spoken and written English are of Maori origin. A large proportion of these are plants and animals such as kauri, totara, kakapo and weta, and place and personal names," they said.

"There are also many examples of words and concepts borrowed from Maori culture and society that have become more widely familiar to New Zealanders in the last 20 years, such as hikoi, hongi, hui, kaumatua, kohanga reo, whanau and tangata whenua."

Dr Bardsley said decisions about which Maori words were included depended on how often they were used in English publications and how widespread that use was.

A Maori word that was put in the dictionary might, for example, have appeared in a newspaper, the Listener magazine and a fiction book, she said.

As well as bringing many Maori words into English, New Zealanders also had a tendency to compound them. An example would be cyber-hui, which although not in the dictionary this time, could well be in future.

The editors had learned much when putting the book together, but dictionary makers could never be confident they had covered everything, Dr Bardsley said.

Some words that had not made it into the dictionary appeared to be almost exclusively verbal, some of them used in rural areas and almost totally unknown to urban New Zealanders.

An example was the word sooner when used about a sheep dog - as in: he would sooner lie in the shade.

"There are a tremendous number of words associated with sheep dogs. I have over 150," she said.


While not in the new dictionary, words such as sooner would be included in a publication on rural New Zealand English which she was writing.

Mr Deverson and Professor Kennedy said the project had been a journey into both Maori and Pakeha history as well as literature, economics, politics, botany, zoology and almost every other realm of the country's life and endeavour.


Examples were afghan, bach, backblocks, Beehive, biddy-bid, cheerio, dunger, farmstay, greasies, gumboot, gutbuster, half-g, housie, jetboat, munted, plonk, scarfie, Swanndri, and tinny.

- NZPA