durry
English edit
Etymology 1 edit
Unknown. Possibly (putative obsolete brand of roll-your-own tobacco) + -y (“diminutive suffix”).
David Bradley, Australian Journal of Linguistics (1989) suggests that it may be derived from a widely used brand of loose tobacco used for roll-your-owns, Bull Durham, clipped and resuffixed with the most productive suffix for forming new colloquial words in Australian English.
Suggested that it was a term brought back from ANZAC forces as a Dhurrie Rug and a cigarette are both rolled.
Alternative forms edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun edit
durry (plural durries)
- (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A cigarette, especially a roll-your-own.
- 2003, C. C. Saint-Clair, Far from Maddy[1], page 224:
- “Fire-head lady, you got a smoke?” asks the younger of the two men. “You got a durry. Cigarette.”
- 2004, Jay Verney, Percussion[2], page 118:
- He pulled a tobacco pouch out of his pocket with a plastic bag containing what had to be a mind-altering substance. “You′re welcome to join me in a durry,” he said, rolling himself a cigarette.
- 2007, Kevin Hallewell, Woop Woop[3], page 151:
- He thought for a moment as he deftly rolled the paper and tobacco into a durry, licked the edge and stuck it down.
- 2015, Charlotte Wood, The Natural Way of Things, Allen & Unwin, published 2018, page 3:
- This was the first thing Yolanda knew in the dark morning. (That and where's my durries?)
Synonyms edit
Etymology 2 edit
Alternative forms.
Noun edit
durry
- Alternative form of dhurrie