'Bonzerina' - slinging good old slang
Author Alison Lloyd's newsletter #26
As last week was Good Friday, here’s a post bursting with positivity. Scroll down for three sorts of goodness:
good news — a writing goal reached
talking things up, old style
thoughts on the excellence of Easter
Writing News
Last month I finished the second draft of my 1888 novel. (Cue cheering and confetti!) The love scene at the end was so much fun to write. It’s not ready to share, not yet, but I’m getting there.
Savoury Slang
A lot of slang is unsavoury. But sometimes we use zesty words for appreciation, and that was my aim in some recent research. I wanted a minor character, a teenage boy, to encourage the main character. In the 1980s, when I was a teen, good things were ‘ace’. So what did they say in the 1880s?
I discovered earlier Australians were an exuberant lot. We came up with a bonanza of new slang here, around the turn of the century, as we were becoming a new nation.1 This included a swag of energetic, hearty expressions of approval, which make cheerful reading.
A good fellow, for example, was a bontodger (or bon-todger). This is from French bon toujours, translating as ‘good always’. Colonial newspapers were full of advertisements for French lessons, so a bit of French was part of many people’s lexicon. But Australians didn’t necessarily speak it well, because bon toujours is apparently not a genuine French expression. Nor is double entendre, or nom de plume. But a bontodger didn’t nitpick about accuracy. He joined in the fun.
Bonzer (or bonza), meaning ‘excellent’ or ‘first-rate’, is still in the dictionary. (Although it’s been a long time since I heard someone use it.) A ‘boncer’ was the largest marble in a schoolkid’s bag, the marble that knocked the others out of the ring. Most likely, ‘boncer’ came in turn from ‘bouncer’ — a big bloke, a ‘bruiser’.
Speakers of slang took a mix-and-match approach to language, cutting and pasting in parts of other words like ‘sizzler’ and ‘bobby-dazzler’. So if the birthday party laid out a good spread, or your team won at the footy, you could say it was a bontosher, a boshter, a bontozzler, a bonsterina, a bonzalina, or even a bontosherino.
Or you could combine a few choice words for emphasis:
Curly’s find was a “boshter” —a “Bobby Dazzler” on his showing. “The very richest gold-reefs in the whole world.” But where, oh where are they?
Perth Spectator, 8 February 1902
‘In the words of the barracker, Saturday’s match was a real blanky bonzerina—a boshter of the most bonzer type.’
The Bulletin, 13 May 1909 on the weekend’s rugby match.
Very boisterous. If fun is all you feel like for now, stop here. Sling around some slang, and have a bonzer day ;)
Seriously Good
For goodness that’s more serious, keep reading.
I love the story of Easter. With a passion, if you’ll excuse the pun. The last days of Jesus are one of the greatest stories ever. So many threads, weaving such darkness and drama. It takes place in a society under uneasy foreign occupation. On the biggest holiday of the year, patriotism and emotion is running high:
The religious establishment is threatened by a popular preacher, and they’ll protect their privileges at any cost.
A disenchanted follower, Judas, sees a way of turning his discontent into profit.
The colonial governor, Pilate, is frustrated with his frontier posting and its insubordinate people — he must maintain law and order or face the wrath of his overlords in Rome.
Popular opinion turns against the celebrity, Jesus, who isn’t delivering the liberation they want.
The scene is set. Like a political thriller, the self-interests of opposing parties collide and converge, and play out with fatal effect. Jesus takes the rap for the wrongs of others.
If you take out the specifics of time and place, there’s so much that’s familiar in this account. Fear, prejudice and vested interests lead to human rights abuse and execution. It’s a very old story, which keeps repeating. What do you do when faced with brutality and catastrophe like this? Most of us don’t take to the streets in protest. We carry on as best we can, although part of our heart shuts down. Jesus’ followers deny all involvement and lock their doors.
It would be a tragedy, if that were the end of the story. Powerful, but a tale of love defeated. However there’s a twist — Jesus the man dies, but as son of God, the grave can’t hold him. The tables are turned. It’s epic and earth-splitting. Not fluffy bunny stuff. A real bontozzler, that’s disturbingly, deeply good.
On that note, I wish you all sorts of goodness, until next month.
Most of this information comes from an online paper by James Lambert of Charles Darwin University.
A beautiful account of Easter - thanks Alison.
What a bonzer scroll! 😁❤️