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eelerspee - (Aus) n., a confidence trickster.
A bit of a puzzler, this, till you realize it's pig-Latin for spieler, as in one who gives a spiel in the sense of fluent and extravagant talk, especially a sales-pitch -- which is common Australian slang for a con-man, trickster, quandong, ripperty man, et cet. Spiel ultimately comes from German, either directly or via Yiddish, spielen, to play/perform/gamble.
Bonus word: eighty-six (v.)
And that's it for this first installment of words from Green’s Dictionary of Slang. I'm going to break this up into every other week, so next week will be the usual random mix.
---L.
A bit of a puzzler, this, till you realize it's pig-Latin for spieler, as in one who gives a spiel in the sense of fluent and extravagant talk, especially a sales-pitch -- which is common Australian slang for a con-man, trickster, quandong, ripperty man, et cet. Spiel ultimately comes from German, either directly or via Yiddish, spielen, to play/perform/gamble.
Bonus word: eighty-six (v.)
And that's it for this first installment of words from Green’s Dictionary of Slang. I'm going to break this up into every other week, so next week will be the usual random mix.
---L.
