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by Tel UK- Licensed to fish! on August 6th, 2009

Tel UK- Licensed to fish!

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What is the meaning of the Aussie saying,as dry as a Kookaburra's Khyber?

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Answers. 6 helpful answers below.

  • by iwnit on August 7th, 2009

    iwnit

    1) "• Cockney has borrowed widely:
    o from the Empire ► ‘buckshee’ means free, surplus or going a-begging (from East of Suez); ‘doolally’, meaning demented, barmy (from Deolali, a town near Bombay and site of a mental hospital for British troops); a ‘shufti’ meaning let’s have a look around (from Arabic) and ‘khyber’ meaning backside (from the British soldiers stationed on the Khyber Pass)"
    Source and further information:
    http://www.fontys.nl/lerarenopleiding/tilburg/engels/History_web/Files/History_lessonsheet12.doc


    2) "The use of Cockney rhyming slang is fairly common: thus mulligatawny is pedantically glossed as 'in a state of heightened sexual erethism', i.e. 'horny', while to take a Captain Cook is 'to look' and a state of extreme thirst is melodramatically rendered as being as dry as a kookaburra 's khyber."
    Source and further information:
    "A history of English words By Geoffrey Hughes"
    http://books.google.com/books?id=K2yZTxAVSskC&pg=PA302&lpg=PA302&dq=as+dry+as+a+Kookaburra's+Khyber&source=bl&ots=2MFjVEVLO7&sig=sqSSyu5AIGLOg0huJLJwmE4VCbk&hl=en&ei=iyp8So2IKtKNsAbv6pzqAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#v=onepage&q=&f=false


    3) "kookaburra
    Australian species of the kingfisher bird

    Kyhber
    rump; buttocks: a kick up the Khyber. [rhyming slang Khyber Pass arse]"
    Source and further information:
    http://www.coolabah.com/dictionary/viewall.cfm

    Further information:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kookaburra


    4) "1971 Barry Humphries Bazza Pulls It Off [1] 'Oh Kevie, mein liebling – vot about ein swift frostie for your little disciple? I'm as dry as a nun's nazi!'

    ibid. [glossary] kookaburra's khyber, as dry as a. A condition of the throat prior to the ingurgitation of ice cold lager"
    Source and further information:
    http://www.anu.edu.au/ANDC/res/aus_words/lambert/lambert_and.php

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  • by bazza on August 7th, 2009

    bazza

    You bloody knew I would answer this one didn't you. Bloody Poms. A few facts for you, the Kookaburra is not a native of Aussie and Khyber comes from India (I think) So I would answer this way. Old kooka's tribe was heading up the Khyber, they were as dry as the Khybers fridge and could say nothing better than Koooooka kooooka. Or something like that.

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  • by Firebrand on August 6th, 2009

    Firebrand

    Kyber is rhyming slang for Kyber Pass (arse)Very dry

    So it means they are pretty thirsty and want a tinnie

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  • by ispamalam on August 6th, 2009

    ispamalam

    From what I've heard, none of the sayings attributed to Aussies are ever actually used by Aussies except to fool tourists into believing them. Haw-Haw!

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  • by Kravenhead on August 6th, 2009

    Kravenhead

    I'm not Australian, but if I were to guess I'd say.. I think the Kookaburras are those birds that you heard in a lot of the old jungle movies (wrong geography) and Khyber is the name of a European mountain pass. So, when I think of pass, as in anatomy, I think of the "rear". So I'm think'n it means as dry as a Kookaburra's a$$. I don't know that they are dry, but they must know what they're talk'n about... it's their bird... poor little Kookaburras... no wonder they're so loud! =0]

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  • by Suby the Coat on August 6th, 2009

    Suby the Coat

    This is what I found on a web search:
    .
    '....monster hangover occurred years later at sea. Waking up in the Ship's Bar, with my face again stuck to something (a beer sodden carpet tile), mouth as dry as a kookaburra's Khyber, with a splitting headache and a nauseous stomach...'
    .
    http://www.thewax.com/3-10/olym.html
    .
    I think the meaning of the phrase comes through clearly in the writing. It means a ginat sized hangover!

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