Having a dekko, taking a squiz or doing a shoofty

The forms of words can sometimes trick us into an assumed familiarity. Dekko and shoofty both sound as though they could be Aussie slang because their endings ally them with the typically Australian abbreviations known as hypocoristics. Dekko might belong with ambo or arvo; shoofty should really have an -ie ending to go with barbie and of course Aussie. In fact they are from Hindi and Arabic respectively, both entering the English language through British military slang, and both being forms of the native language verb “to look”.

The typically Australian equivalent of these slang expressions for "look" is squiz, as in "Take a squiz over here". Thought to be a blend of squint and quiz, it has its origins in Devonshire dialect, according to the Macquarie Dictionary (2005). Though a transported word, squiz has thrived here and is labelled "Australian and N.Z. slang" in the Oxford English Dictionary.

You can take or have a dekko or a shoofty, and even give something a squiz, but what would doing a shoofty involve? Former prime minister, Bob Hawke – always a champion of the vernacular – employed this phrase after he’d denied having “detailed discussions” with his treasurer, saying his use of the word “detailed” did not mean he was “trying to do a shoofty by adjectivaling my way out of it” (Sydney Morning Herald, 17.3.1990). Here it is the adjective shoofty in the (uniquely Australian) sense of “shifty” or “cunning” that is being put to work as a noun. They can be shoofty things, words.

Adam Smith

A version of this article was first published in Campus Review (8.4.08). We would like to establish a regular word column, and if any of our readers has an original idea for a name for this column, or queries/observations about new words or word origins, please contact us.

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