Lexigame Community
General Category => Words => Topic started by: anona on November 23, 2018, 11:43:01 PM
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The FOUNDRIES game: defo, slang for definitely, is in a number of online dictionaries and I'm suggesting it be considered for inclusion as rare (because described as British). Even though it's a word I would never use, it's definitely one I know.
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Never heard of it in Oz.
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Me neither here in Tassie (Oz)
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Mmm, well, that confirms it's British, as many of the online dictionaries said. Apart from the Oxford, which spelt it with two fs, they all spelt it with one (Collins, wiktionary, internet slang, Macmillan dictionary, yourdictionary, thefreedictionary). The Outback Aussie slang dictionary's definition was "Crack on", short for definitely.
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Crack on
:-P New one one me.
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I'm not familiar with it.
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I know it from years spent in Liverpool - a good Scouse word!
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I know the word but don't think I've ever heard it, and I wouldn't have thought of it if I was playing the game that day.
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It's true this word is in some dictionaries, sometimes as deffo. But as you say, anona, it's often shown with a single F. The online Collins, for instance, gives defo as the primary spelling, with deffo as a variant.
I'll add both versions as rare words.
For the benefit of those who haven't encountered this term, a recent example from a travel article in the Scottish Sun:
But there is no doubt the highlight is the MASSIVE pool. It snaked round what seemed like acres of grounds, and was surrounded by luxuriously-padded loungers. Deffo no fighting for a sunbed on this trip, that’s for sure.
One thing that's unclear is where the word started. Green's Dictionary of Slang (https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/py3fngq) says deffo was originally Irish, though the earliest example given, from 1966, is from a book by Thom Keyes, a US-born author raised in the UK. The OED has a 2016 entry for deffo, which it says originated in Australia, backed up by a 1940 example from the Sunday Times of Perth, Western Australia:
Does the girl lend her escort money to take her out on the understanding that it's paid back on Friday?..But deffo!
The Macquarie has deffo for the definitely meaning, and defo meaning defamation. This latter usage I had not noticed before, but it does seem to be a well-used bit of lawyer's jargon, in Australia at least. For example, Buzzfeed reporter Laine Sainty tweeted the other day, "The Osman Faruqi v Mark Latham defo case has settled ..."
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Thank you for looking into this, Alan.