Emu at the Racetrack, Looking for a Winner

We heard from Steve Ryan in Melbourne, Australia.

He heard our discussion about the word fossicking, which means to rummage about.

And in Australia and New Zealand, fossicking literally means digging about for gemstones in abandoned mining excavations.

And that reminded Steve of another slang term used there, and that term is emu.

Now, of course, as you know, Grant, an emu is Australia’s largest native bird.

But in Australia, an emu is also somebody who picks up discarded betting tickets on a race course, hoping that they’re going to find something that’s, you know, valuable.

Oh, so interesting.

Yeah, they call those stupors in the U.S.

Oh, do they really?

Yeah, I think there’s other names for them, but stupors is the one I know.

Yeah, the people who hope that somebody has accidentally thrown out a betting ticket that has value.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

In Australia, it’s an emu because they’re bending over in the same way that an emu will look for food.

That’s so interesting.

We love to hear the slang from other parts of the world.

Share yours with us.

Words at waywordradio.org.