Dinkum – (Australian and New Zealand) genuine, authentic, guileless.
As in, He was a fair dinkum bloke with no pretensions. I’ve always liked this word, another one we didn’t use back home in Africa. According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of this word was in 1905, origin unknown. Our word for genuine was pukka, (do not pronounce puke-a), no doubt from our colonial relationship to India. Origin, Hindi and Urdu and means cooked, ripe, solid, from Sanskrit pakva. Makes sense?
Merriam-Webster has pukka as a synonym for dinkum. Now maybe pukka can be wiggled into dinkum, but I don’t think so. The latter is more along the lines of bona fide, certifiable, as in Pukka quarters with a swarm of servants. Dinkum is well, more personal.
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Australia is still on my travel bucket list, Rossandra, so I appreciate having a handle on the local lingo to help me fit in when I go. I’ll be sure to add dinkum to my list!
Start practicing now, see what happens! : )