razoo common?

[TRex]

Just encountered razoo in a Your Puzzle. Never heard of it. Clicked for definition:

1. (Australia, informal) A fictitious coin of very low value.
2. (Australia, informal, rare, in negative constructions) The smallest part or particle imaginable; a whit; a jot.

Hard to believe this is common!

[Ozzyjack]

Hi TR,

I didn’t know it was Australian, I didn’t know it was a fictitious 🍵 coin, but the expression “not worth a brass razoo” was very common the last time I heard it, which must have been at least 60 or 70 years ago.

[2dognight]

Hi Jack

Perhaps we are a bit backward in South Oz but i heard the expression ' not worth a brass razoo' not so long ago

Carol

[Ozzyjack]

Hi Carol,

I never gave it much thought at the time, but I guess given the prejudices of those times, I just assumed it was Asian or subcontinent currency.   I suspect it was more country than city usage which would be consistent with the time when I left the country for the big city (Canberra 1960, population 50,000).

[TRex]

So, all the people familiar with razoo thus far are Australians?

[cmh]

No T Rex . I am English and the brass razoo phrase is known to me. I can't remember the last time I heard it said out loud mind you.

[Ozzyjack]

I quizzed my Ai  source.  This was its response.

The expression "not worth a brass razoo" is an Australian phrase that originated in soldiers' slang during World War I

. It refers to something of trivial or no value1

. The term "razoo" itself is believed to be a corruption of the French word "sou," which was the smallest denomination of French currency at the time. Over time, "razoo" was combined with "brass" (a term for money in England) to form the expression.

I found some evidence that the expression "not worth a brass razoo" is still in use

. For example, it was mentioned in a discussion on Bytes Daily, an Australian blog, as recently as 2024

. The phrase is still recognized and understood by Australians, though it might not be as commonly used as it once was.



I have no evidence but it is possible that it regained popularity by soldiers in prison camps in Asia in WWII.  These were mainly British and Australian.

This is the extract from Bytes Daily

Brass Razoo:

In a discussion today someone used the expression “not worth a brass razoo.” This then led to a further discussion as to how the phrase may have originated.

According to Wikipedia:

Brass razoo is an Australian phrase that was first recorded in soldiers' slang in World War I. It is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "a non-existent coin of trivial value". It is commonly used in the expression I haven't got a brass razoo, meaning the speaker is out of money.

That tells us what it means but not how it originated. That’s where it gets murky.

There are a number of opinions and explanations on the possible origin:

That Australian troops serving in France used the smallest denomination in French currency, a sou, to denote having nothing eg “I haven’t got a sou.” Over time this became corrupted to “razoo” with the word brass, meaning money in England, being added later.


The Yanks use the term raspberry to denote a derogatory farting sound . It was also known as a razoo. Interchanges between Australian and American infantry serving in France jokingly included razoos, later known as “arse razoos”, which then became “brass razoo” and applied to having nothing.


So there you have it, the jury is still out on this one.


Click here for the article in Alchetron

[TRex]

Thanks, Jack!

Still puzzling how sou could become razoo — seems like a syylable tacked on to front even though people are far more likely to truncate words.

[Ozzyjack]

The discussion of origin doesn’t help with its current status. At first sight it’s obvious Australianism probably disqualifies it from being common but the question of whether it should be included at all is arguable.   But  I’ll leave that for others.

[TRex]

ISTM Alan shifted to being more tolerant of obscure words several years ago, so I suspect it won't be removed which is fine by me.

[cmh]

Given the WW1 information probably my Grandfather brought the phrase back from his time in a WW1 prisoner of war camp as it is him and my Nan who I remember using the phrase.

[Alan W]

A word's being regional, or dated, does not necessarily disqualify it from inclusion in our acceptable words. However, I certainly feel more comfortable about a word if it is listed in general dictionaries. Razoo passes this test: it is in the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Collins English Dictionary, as well as various dictionaries from Australia and New Zealand.

It may be that the word got its common status in Chi because I didn't realise it was specific to Australia and New Zealand. Green's Dictionary of Slang identifies it as originally N.Z., then Aus/N.Z., but almost all the usage examples given are from Australian sources. This slang dictionary is freely accessible online, and I'd recommend anyone interested in this word to read the entry, which has a multitude of quotations using razoo.

The word has occasionally been used by people from elsewhere. The Scottish writer John Niven, in a 2018 article in the Daily Record, wrote: "Nothing, darling. Not a farthing. Not a groat. Not a single brass razoo." However the word's currency (so to speak) is 99% Down Under, where it was first coined (so to speak).

Razoo will be treated as a rare word in future.

While looking into this, I learnt that another word with a similar meaning, skerrick, is also mostly used in Australia and New Zealand, though probably derived from British regional terms. Like razoo, skerrick is often used in a negative sense: "We have seen not a skerrick of remorse from Scotty or his cronies..." Skerrick is playable in Chi, as a rare word.

[TRex]

Thanks, Alan.

[Maudland]

My two cents’ worth - I so enjoy your analyses, Alan!