Smoko, Australian slang for a smoke or cigarette break, also turns up at a British research station in Antarctica. It may have arrived with Australians working there, or it may simply have been handed from one wintering team to the next, the way isolated workplaces can preserve bits of slang long after their source is forgotten. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Cigarette-Break Slang “Smoko” Shows Up at a British Antarctic Research Station”
Here’s another bit of slang used by those researchers in Antarctica, SMOCO.
Do you know what SMOCO is, Grant?
Oh, yeah.
That’s Australian for a smoke break.
So there must be Australians there.
Or is it older than that and it’s just been handed down from research team to research team?
Oh, that’s cool.
I don’t know.
I love the idea of different generations of researchers coming to this isolated station and bequeathing to the next generation some of that slang.
Yeah, that’s pretty cool, right?
Like the Scots term you mentioned earlier, the electric, what was it?
Electric soup for fortified wine.
Yeah, like that that will last and last until people just don’t know where it came from.
Exactly.
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