Now for a number of reasons, part sentiment, I salt my spoken language with Australianisms. Well, it's London to a brick that I will be pulled up from time to time both younger and recent Australians. What do you mean, they say in puzzled terms?
London to a brick, you say? It just means to bet on an absolute certainty. I don't know when it first came in, although my memory was that it came from a race caller. How very Australian! I bit like betting on two blowies crawling up a wall!
That would fit with this account, although it appears from Bob's advice that the phrase changed a little. I have never heard it with the word "on" added. Well, London to a brick, I'm probably wrong!
Postscript
For the edification and perhaps confusion of my international visitors, kvd kindly referred me to this dictionary of Australian slang.
3 comments:
The link about the phrase is as I remember it, and the "on" is very important for the meaning I've always taken from the saying.
(You wouldn't describe a near-certainty as, say, a 5 to 1 chance. You would more likely describe it as a '5 to 1 on' chance)
Signs of a miss-spent youth! Those were the days...
kvd
Ah, the joys of the internet. This page might be of use to your international readers, Jim:
http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html
- and I note with interest that it also leaves off the absolutely vital "on" from the saying.
kvd
Miss-spent youth indeed! Will bring the link up on the main page. I like it much better without the on!
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