Sunday, August 19, 2012

London to a brick

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:

Anonymous said...

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

Anonymous said...

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

Jim Belshaw said...

Miss-spent youth indeed! Will bring the link up on the main page. I like it much better without the on!