pokie
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pō'kē, IPA(key): /ˈpəʊki/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -əʊki
- Homophone: pokey
Etymology 1 edit
From clipping of poker machine + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).
Noun edit
pokie (plural pokies)
- (Australia, New Zealand, slang, chiefly in the plural) Synonym of poker machine, an electronic game of chance played for money, especially slot machines.
- 2004, Bernard Salt, The Big Shift, page 77:
- For several decades until the early 1990s, Echuca–Moama existed in the consciousness of Melburnians as the destination for pokie bus-trips. All of this changed when the Kennett Government legalised pokies in Victoria in 1993.
- 2006, author not known, Sydney City Guide, Lonely Planet, page 148,
- In reality, the cheap beer and walls of pokies attract anyone and everyone.
- 2008, Catherine Deveny, Say When, page 171:
- None of these people around me punching the pokies has walked in here today expecting to be a loser.
- 2023 July 21, Billie Schwab Dunn, “I Tried Wetherspoons Food for the First Time-I Feared I'd Get Scurvy...”, in Daily Star:
- I was also shocked that the poker machines (which we call pokies back home) were on full display, as in Australia, they legally have to be in a separate room.
Derived terms edit
Etymology 2 edit
Shortening of a mispronunciation of genus name Poecilotheria
Noun edit
pokie (plural pokies)
- (informal) Any of several species of arboreal tarantula in the genus Poecilotheria.
Further reading edit
Poecilotheria on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Poecilotheria on Wikispecies.Wikispecies 
Poecilotheria on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
