Togs, bathers, swimmers or cossie? Aussie words that change by state

The quick table: same thing, different word

These are the words you will hear most, not rules. Plenty of people use more than one, and "mixed" means we could not find a reliable answer, not that nobody has a word for it.

If in doubt, these work anywhere: swimmers, "a small one" at the bar, potato scallop or potato cake, devon, sausage sizzle, corner shop, drinking fountain, parmi or parma. Everyone will understand you. Some will correct you. That is the fun bit.

Togs, bathers, swimmers or cossie?

The togs or bathers question is the classic one, and the border is real. Where you are standing changes what comes out of people's mouths.

Togs: Queensland

Togs is the Queensland word, and you will hear it further north generally. "Grab your togs" means bring your swimmers, whatever shape they are.

Bathers: Victoria, SA, WA and the south

Bathers is the word across the south and the west: Victoria, South Australia and WA. It is common in Tasmania too, though you will hear swimmers there as well.

In one large online survey run by the Linguistics Roadshow in 2015, almost half of the 20,000-plus people who answered picked bathers, a quarter picked swimmers and one in six said togs. It was self-selected and skewed young, so treat it as a big straw poll, not a census.

Swimmers and cossie: NSW

Swimmers is the NSW word. Cossie, sometimes spelt cozzie, is short for swimming costume, and it is mostly a Sydney thing. Same item, either word.

The neatest proof that this is about state lines, not climate, is Albury-Wodonga on the Murray: bathers on the Wodonga side in Victoria, swimmers once you cross the bridge into Albury, according to the Roadshow team in The Conversation.

There are more. The Australian National Dictionary Centre lists bathers, cossies, speedos, swimmers and togs under budgie smugglers, which is a whole other word and lives in the slang dictionary. Where to wear them is the best beaches in Australia guide.

Say it: "Bring your togs, we are going to the pool after work."

Moving from Brisbane to Melbourne? Swap your togs for bathers and your scallop for a potato cake. Practise the local words out loud in Aussie Talk, and ask Bruce what he would call it. Get it on the App Store.

Middy, pot or schooner? Ordering a beer in each state

Mark Gwynn of the Australian National Dictionary Centre put it this way: depending on where you live, you might ask for a schooner, handle, pot, middy, butcher or pony. Six names, before you have picked what goes in it. This is the group that matters most, because the word changes what lands in front of you, and it matters double if you are the one pouring. Bar work is a big part of finding work in Australia.

The small glass

The small glass is about 285 mL. In NSW, the ACT and WA it is a middy. In Victoria and Queensland it is a pot, though some Queenslanders say middy and you will hear "ten" up there too. In the Northern Territory it is a handle, and middy or pot will get you the same thing. Tasmania is the wildcard: pot, ten or handle, depending on the pub.

The next size up, about 425 mL, is a schooner almost everywhere.

Why a schooner is smaller in Adelaide

South Australia is the odd one out. In SA, schooner means the small glass, the 285 mL one. The 425 mL glass is called a pint. So an Adelaide pint is a Sydney schooner, and an Adelaide schooner is a Sydney middy. Order a schooner in Adelaide expecting the big one and you will get a polite little glass and a look.

A pint is usually the biggest standard glass, except in South Australia, where pint is the 425. Volumes wander from pub to pub. The names are the part that catches people.

If in doubt, say "a small one" or "the 425" and point. Bar staff sort this out all day and nobody minds. The round is a shout, and the rules for that are on the slang for backpackers page. Takeaway is from the bottle-o.

Say it: "Two middies and a lemon squash, thanks."

Potato cake, potato scallop or potato fritter?

The fried slice of potato in batter at the fish and chip shop is a potato cake in Victoria and Tasmania, a potato scallop (or just a scallop) in NSW and Queensland, and a potato fritter in South Australia. Gwynn puts WA with NSW on scallop, though that one is less settled.

The scallop has nothing to do with the shellfish. Gwynn says it probably comes from escalope, a slice of meat, coated and fried.

In the same 2015 Roadshow survey, potato cake got 44.3 per cent and potato scallop 36.3 per cent, with the same straw-poll caveat. Ask for either at any chip shop and they will know. The word for the chips themselves is a separate argument, on the Aussie versus American page.

Say it: "Minimum chips and two potato cakes, thanks."

Devon, fritz, polony or Belgium?

The round pink lunch meat in the deli cabinet is devon in NSW and the ACT and across most of Queensland, and devon is the word that travels furthest. In South Australia it is fritz. In WA it is polony, which Gwynn says has been in use there since the 1870s. Tasmania is, in his words, the last bastion of the name Belgium, though plenty of Tasmanians say devon too. Victorians may say devon or stras, short for Strasburg, and in parts of Queensland you will still hear Windsor sausage.

Why the lunch meat has so many names

It used to be German sausage, and fritz is a German nickname. Then came the First World War. Gwynn told the ABC that anything to do with Germany was not very politic, and a whole suite of new names turned up at once, around 1915. On the east coast it became devon or Windsor sausage. As he put it, just as the royal family changed their name, so too did the German sausage.

South Australia, with its big German heritage, did not bother. Fritz never got replaced. WA already had polony, a British word that is probably an alteration of Bologna. The map you see today is a hundred-year-old argument that nobody finished.

Say it: "Two hundred grams of devon, thanks, sliced thin."

More words that change at the border

Sausage sandwich or sausage in bread

The sausage sizzle snag on one slice of white bread is a sausage sandwich in NSW and the ACT, and a sausage in bread in Victoria and Queensland. In the 2015 survey, about 52 per cent went with sausage in bread. Snag itself is in the dictionary.

Milk bar, deli or corner shop

The little shop on the corner that sells milk, papers and a pie is a milk bar in Victoria and a corner shop or corner store further north. In South Australia you will often hear deli, which throws everyone else, because elsewhere a deli is the sliced-meat counter.

Port

In Queensland and parts of northern NSW, a school bag or small suitcase is a port, short for portmanteau. It is a bit old-school. You will hear it from older Queenslanders and see it on school lists.

Bubbler

The drinking tap in the park is a bubbler in Sydney and NSW, and you will hear it in other places too. Drinking fountain is the safe word everywhere else.

Parma or parmi

The chicken parmigiana on every pub menu is a parma in Victoria and a parmi in NSW and much of the rest of the country. That is Gwynn's take, and he is honest about the limits of it: measuring this one with any accuracy is a problem. Order either. The kitchen knows.

If you have just landed in...

The ACT mostly sounds like NSW. The Territory is a mix, with handle for the small beer.

Questions about words that change by state