Wiktionary

fair dinkum

English edit

Etymology edit

see dinkum.

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

fair dinkum (not comparable)

  1. (Australia, slang) Genuine, honest, fair and square.
    Are you fair dinkum?
    Are you telling me the truth?; Do you really mean that?
    • 2002, John Dutch, April and Anderson‎[1], page 63:
      I mean, if they were out at a concert or something, or if they were involved in some other out-of-school social activity and some fair dinkum Aussie bloke, with a fair dinkum Aussie accent, and a fair dinkum Aussie hat, preferably chewing on a fair dinkum gum leaf, and holding a koala bear in one hand and a kangaroo in the other stood up and delivered those Lawson poems in full bore Strine, the girls would probably have loved him.
    • 2004, Susie Ashworth et al., Lonely Planet Australia,
      When people think of Australia they commonly think of the outback; or koalas, kangaroos and ‘fair dinkum’ frontier types.
    • 2007, Barbara Hartmann King, Coloured Sands‎[2], page 55:
      ‘You're not wrong there, Doc. Of course, you'd get more of a fair dinkum picture if you were able to interview members of the Wilson family but that would be darned near impossible.’
    • 2008 Joe Hockey interviewed on 4 Corners, [3],
      He appreciated the honesty, he appreciated the fact that I rang him and was prepared to be fair dinkum with him, and he heard what I said.

Synonyms edit

Derived terms edit

Adverb edit

fair dinkum (not comparable)

  1. (Australia, slang) Truly, honestly.
    • 1991, Jeffrey Archer, As the Crow Flies, Pan Macmillan, published 2004, unnumbered page:
      She checked what he had produced against the diagram in her book, smiled and said, “Fair dinkum, you really do teach maths,” which took Daniel a little by surprise as he wasn’t sure what “fair dinkum” meant, but as it was accompanied by a smile he assumed it was some form of approval.
    • 1995, Edward Berridge, The Lives of the Saints‎[4], page 33:
      Fair dinkum, I'm being straight up with you now, I could have hit him.
    • 2004, Sally Warhaft, Well May We Say: The Speeches That Made Australia‎[5], page 466:
      Kevin, fair dinkum mate, you've got to put your boot into the ball, you're too slow to do all this finessin'.
    • 2011, Annabel Stafford, The Mob Can't Hurt You, University of Technology, Sydney, The Life You Chose and That Chose You: The 25th UTS Writers' Anthology, unnumbered page,
      Well, then I've started fucken crying cause I'm fair dinkum scared the prick's gonna kill me. […] Fair dinkum, it sounds like the whole fucken town's out.

Synonyms edit

Derived terms edit

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