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“Sickie” for sick-day also springs to mind.
Another interesting area is with nicknames in Australia, removing the end of names with a double r and adding -zza. Barry becomes “Bazza”, Sharron “Shazza”, Garry “Gazza”, etc.
Is that just Aussie English though? It’s been happening to me for as long as I can remember…
With regard to sickies (mentioned by Brendan), the important thing is to get the collocation right. In this case, the correct “operating verb” is THROW, and if you don’t believe me see here:
http://throwasickie.com/
But i believe you can also say CHUCK:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chuck%20a%20sickie
@SharonC – I think it does happen in many versions of English, but it is its prevalence in Australian English which is defining.
Another one I thought of after was “sunnies” for “sunglasses” – one of those terms which is so embedded that it doesn’t occur to you why the person you’re talking to is giving you a blank look when you say you can’t find your sunnies.
@Brendan – Do you know, I thought about the -zza names, but hadn’t identified that it was names with ‘R’ in them. Not strictly double r, though; I knew several Lozzas in primary school (Lauren). My brother is Jez (Jeremy – called Jezza before shortening it to Jez). Jareds can be Jazza, Darrens are quite often Dazza, Warrens are Wozza. Karens can be Kazza. And so on. I can’t think of any examples without an ‘R’, but think I have heard them, but they don’t stick and are just used as a joke. I could be wrong about that last point though.
Just goes to show how unconsciously we use the systems. However, in my corner of the country at least, the -zza names are dying out a bit.
The dreaded ‘-zza’ names! I haven’t heard one in ages. I have a friend with a ‘rhyming slang’ type nickname – from ‘Mathers’ to ‘Bathers’ to ‘Bays’.
Importantly, you can also PULL a sickie. Firies and Tradies and Ambos probably never do that, although at a servo I saw a truckie was taking a really long smoko.
Maybe Lady Gaga was trying to get her Aussie on when she sang ‘spend the last dough in your pocko’?