Intro to Kiwinglish

Oz vs. Godzone -- don't be confused. Some people think Australia and New Zealand are the same country. They're not. Both former members of the British Empire -- now part of the Commonwealth -- they are like bickering siblings, fighting it out on the rugby pitch, but good buddies when times are rough. Many New Zealand words and expressions come from the English, others from the Ozzies, others are pure Kiwi. New Zealanders tend to shorten words (which is, I've learned, normal in word evolution. They're just a bit ahead of the curve. I think they shorten everything because they're in such a hurry to go out bungie jumping.) So, Australia, because of the way it's pronounced, is Oz. If you go to visit Tasmania, you're going to Tazzie. Godzone, as a name for New Zealand is a corruption of a poet's (later adopted by others) description of New Zealand as "God's own country." Well, it IS beautiful. Other countries have tried for the title of God's own country, but it seems to have stuck in NZ. So, here's today's Kiwi-ism:

"I felt so crook, I went to bed with a hottie." First, a hottie is a hot water bottle. Crook means broken or ill, unwell. If you're feeling crook, you're feeling sick. Also someone might "go crook" on you, which would be complaining, getting angry or growling at you.