onkus
English edit
Etymology edit
Unknown. Australian from 1903, New Zealand from 1909. Compare slightly earlier onky.[1]
Adjective edit
onkus (comparative more onkus, superlative most onkus)
- (Australia, New Zealand, slang, dated) Inferior; unpleasant; unacceptably bad.
- 1981, Herman Charles Bosman, The Collected Works of Herman Charles Bosman, page 101:
- The soup was crook. It was onkus. A yellow-bellied platypus couldn′t drink it […]
- (New Zealand, slang, rare, obsolete) Good; acceptable; okay.
References edit
- ^ Jonathon Green (2024) “onkus adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang