In a coffee shop yesterday morning I overheard the baristas telling the sorry story of Tim. A fellow barista, Tim has developed the reputation as someone who bums cigarettes, borrows money but never repays it, turns up to work late, but leaves early, and expects free food and espresso on his days off.

“Tim’s a…he’s a…um…” the barista stammered as he searched for an appropriate epithet.

“Tim’s a bludger!” I cried out.

They looked at me blankly, but once I described the meaning of this Aussie English word (which is also used in New Zealand English) the baristas agreed that Tim is indeed a bludger.

Now that my dictionary recognizes “bludger” and doesn’t underline it with a red squiggly line, I can tell you what a bludger is. The Macquarie Dictionary Book of Slang offers the following definition:

bludger

noun (Derogatory) 1. someone who imposes on others, evades responsibilities, does not do a fair share of the work, etc.

Similar words include scrounger, sponger, cager, piker, skiver, or idler, but these all sound archaic and they aren’t completely synonymous. Bludger is a term of abuse for someone who is selfish and lazy, and expects something for nothing. They exploit, use, and impose on other people. They “borrow” but never share cigarettes. They never shout a round of drinks. They let you buy them meals, drive them around, and help them move house, but they never reciprocate. If you live with them they never share responsibilities around the house. They are the kind of person who takes but never gives back. A bludger would definitely turn up late to work and leave early, that is, if they actually had a job…

There is no direct synonym for “bludger” in American English. Someone who “bums” stuff off others isn’t “a bummer”, which has different connotations. “Moocher” is probably the closest term, but it also sounds like you should be dressed like a flapper and doing the Charleston while you say it. You could try leech, loafer, or freeloader, but none of these terms convey the extreme contempt held for the bludger.

“Bludger” reveals a lot about the Australian ethos. Australians value mateship, hard work, fairness, and self-reliance. A bludger violates these cultural values. This is evident in the phrase dole bludger to refer to a social welfare cheat, a person who receives government financial assistance without serious intent to locate a job. In Australian society, a bludger is seen as parasitic.

The history of “bludger” is interesting. During the late C19th and early C20th, a bludger was a pimp. Bludgers lived off the earnings of prostitution. As you may have guessed, the word comes from the “bludgeons” that these bullying thugs used their to beat up their clients, or their women, as in this sample usage.

“They’re mostly prostitutes living here. Everyone in the district knows that. Some of them have their bludgers living here with them too. Or living off them, I should say. I’ll bet the noise you hear late at night is one of them beating his woman up for not bringing in enough money.” (Caddie – The Story of a Barmaid, set in the Great Depression era.)

Over the next few decades, bludger came to mean a white collar worker, as distinct from someone engaged in manual labor. Then it broadened to mean any person who appears to live off the efforts of others.

Around World War II, men in the Australian Army adopted the term to refer to any soldiers not pulling their weight, not doing their fair share of the work, or somehow living off someone else’s exertions. At this time, the U.S. Army had the equivalent term “goldbricker”.

(Goldbricking, also known as “cyberslacking” is becoming a popular term in the age of telecommuting.)

To illustrate how bad it was to be a bludger in the 1950s, John O’Grady offered this advice to “new Australians”.

“If you are ever told you are a bludger, go home. A bludger is the worst thing you can be in Australia. It means that you are criminally lazy, that you

‘pole on your mates’, that you are a ‘piker’ – a mean, contemptible, miserable individual who is not fit to associate with human beings. No one will talk to you, or buy you a drink, and you’ve had it. You will be called a bastard because you are a good bloke, but if you are called a bludger you probably are

one. You might be called a ‘bludgin’ bastard’ in a rueful sort of way which is half admiring but the word bludger by itself is final condemnation.” (They’re a Weird Mob, 1957)

In Australia today, bludger might still be used in a teasing or joking way, but when it’s wielded as an insult, “bludger” is still one of the worst things you can be, and one of the worst things you can be called.

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