bosker

English

Etymology

Unknown. Commonly aligned with bonzer and boshter, though exact connection not established.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Adjective

bosker (comparative more bosker, superlative most bosker)

1. (Australia, slang, obsolete) excellent; wonderful; bonzer.
   • 1946, Frank Sargeson, That Summer, and Other Stories, page 31:

     They were bosker horses. Until I went to work for Bill I didn't know how good racehorses are.

   • 1965, Frank Sargeson, Collected stories, page 50:

     So we all stuck our feet into cow-pats, and after walking over the frost it was bosker and warm sure enough.

   • 2012, Sumner Locke Elliott, Careful, He Might Hear You: Text Classics, →ISBN, page 127:

     But her dadda had fallen off a dray and hurt his back so they'd come down to the city to get jobs, only there weren't any and she'd had to go out and char and do laundry work when she could get it and then her dadda got put in the hospital and was still very crook so wasn't it lucky she'd got this nice job as housemaid in this posh house and the money was bosker and one night off a week into the bargain and old Mrs Bult was lovely to her and so was his aunty, although you had to mind your p's and q's with her!

Noun

bosker (plural boskers)

1. (Australia, slang, obsolete) Someone or something impressive and wonderful.
   • 1912, Laura Bogue Luffman, A Question of Latitude, page 238:

     “You're a bosker, Millicent," Tom exclaimed fervently.

   • 2013, Archie Foley, Margaret Monroe, Portabello & the Great War, →ISBN:

     Thank Mona for me, will you. Gee, isn't she a bosker!

   • 2014, Miles Franklin, Some Everyday Folk and Dawn, →ISBN:

     "Ain't he a bosker?" enthusiastically commented Andrew, coming in to see what I had thought of this doctor, who was the idol of Noonoon.

Anagrams

• Boreks, Kobers, boreks, brokes