Wordsmiths at the The Australian National University are looking for people to contribute rhyming slang to the Australian National Dictionary.

Rhyming slang substitutes words with rhyming words, names or phrases, for example “phone” becomes “dog and bone”.

Speaking with 6PR’s Gareth Parker, senior researcher and editor Mark Gwynn said they’re hoping the public will be able to help them identify new phrases.

“We record Australian English, so we have got a big dictionary of some 16,000 only Australian words,” he said.

“We have quite a few rhyming slang terms in there, but we want to update what we have already got … and see if there are any new ones out there.”

Rhyming slang emerged in London in the mid 1800s and found its way to Australia very soon afterwards.

Press PLAY to hear how you can contribute

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