Aussie slang - o at the end of words.

[Semi]

I was discussing this with some mates, does anyone know where adding 'o' to the end of words, particularly to shorten them, came from? Seems strange that it's usually o we shorten with.

ie
traino
bottle=o
servo

Any ideas?

[Crashlington]

semo

[Semi]

Grantlingto

[Kickass Koolridge]

yoko ono...


...wait.

[Desmo]

Fisho on compo.

[Desmo]

yoko ono...


...wait.

What's yello and kills beatles?

[Version2.0]

reno's...

[Desmo]

relo
smoko

[sathid]

No idea, but as aussie slang apparently has irish and cockney origins, that might be a place to start?

[Lach]

Came from the same roots as AFL did.... drunk bogans

[Dubs]

or -azza


dazza
wazza
kazza
etcazza


Dubs

[Desmo]

Dubso!

[Barfridge]

or adding -y, especially to surnames.

Dubsy
Millsy
Browny
Smithy
etcy

[Desmo]

Barfy.

[The Saint]

Think it would have British origins.

-ho as a suffix was used from the 16th century by sailors (The New World, ho!; Westward, ho!; land, ho!).

There are British English expressions that feature it, like "good-ho" and "right-ho". The English also shorten longer words and add the -o suffix (beano is short for beanfeast; ammo for ammunition).

So I think that just flowed on into arvo, smoko, milko, servo etc. Maybe the Australian accent that evolved lent itself to this manner of shortening words more than English accents did.

[agrid]

Desmo

[Kickass Koolridge]

What's yello and kills beatles?

[The Saint]

I wish someone would smoko Ono.