New Zealand Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Associated with or special to New Zealand or Kiwi people, places, or things. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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beachcrosser n. So can we say a beachcrosser is someone who daringly blazes a trail in an exploratory way across new beaches? Well, no. Later she writes: “The first Maori to visit Australia were Tuki, a priest, and Huru, a warrior, from the Bay of Islands, in 1793. Having adventurously boarded a supply ship, the two young beachcrossers found themselves transported to Norfolk Island,” etc. [English New Zealand] [full cite] (May. 8, 2005)

bearpit n. He will take his seat opposite Miss Clark in Parliament’s chamber, or the bearpit as it is sometimes known, but he says he is not overly nervous at the prospect. [English New Zealand Politics Slang] [full cite] (Dec. 5, 2006)

bunny money n. It’s what I call bunny money—you sucker in some last people to try and see if you can save the inevitable. If Bridgecorp was going under… they should have frozen the money. [English New Zealand Money & Finance New or Nonce] [full cite] (Jul. 5, 2007)

ChiWi n. My daughter is now studying in New Zealand. She also has friends of Chinese and Kiwi parentage. They call themselves “ChiWis.” [English New Zealand] [full cite] (Sep. 3, 2005)

flying fox n. New at Naenae Pool will be the Zipline, a 40-metre flying fox with a drop of five metres. [English New Zealand] [full cite] (Jun. 5, 2004)

hikoi n. Instead of an embattled leader in damage control, Clark said she had come through the week “serenely”—revealing her decision to brand hikoi leaders as “haters and wreckers” was not a throw-away line delivered in anger but rather carefully planned. [Maori New Zealand] [full cite] (May. 10, 2004)

hikoi n. Macdonald, whose memoir ends with a compelling account of the hikoi, the great protest march of Maoris to Waitangi in 1984, has a similar view. [Maori New Zealand] [full cite] (May. 10, 2004)

hydraulicking n. It’s not unheard of, particularly in the area of investment apartments and the practice of same-day selling, when a property is bought and sold by a middleman with a friendly valuer and a gullible end purchaser. The practice is known as “hydraulicking” and was involved in many instances of mortgage fraud reported earlier this year. [English New Zealand Houses & Housing Money & Finance] [full cite] (Oct. 2, 2008)

jack-up n. Leader Don Brash has moved a no-confidence motion in Ms Wilson, but insisted every opportunity presented by the Government for it to formally debate this in Parliament was “a jack-up,” and a ruse by the Government and/or the Greens to close the scandal down quickly, and so refused to cooperate. [English New Zealand Slang] [full cite] (Aug. 3, 2006)

JAFA n. The focus of the campaign is driver carelessness and inattention. The road safety push will particularly target motorists travelling from Auckland and will use a variation of the acronym Jafa—Just Another Fatal Accident. [English New Zealand Automobiles & Transportation Acronym] [full cite] (Mar. 24, 2005)

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