fair dinkum

English

Etymology

see dinkum.

Pronunciation

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˌfeː ˈdɪŋ.kəm]

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Adjective

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

• (genuine): for real, genuine, honest, straight dinkum, true

Derived terms

• (contraction): fair dinks

Adverb

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

• (truly): for real, straight up

Derived terms

• (contraction): fair dinks