Peter Fitzsimons of the Sydney Morning Herald stands up for colourful Aussie expressions. He wants to stop the ingress of Americanisms like "step up to the plate". Personally, though this grated when I first heard it, I have come to believe that there is nothing in traditional English which conveys the same meaning. "Step up to the mark" comes closest, though its origins in prize-fighting make it less savoury than the baseball expression. "Come to the crease" would be the cricket equivalent but does not imply the same sense of taking responsibility with a hint of danger; "face the chin music" goes to the other extreme.
Elsewhere in the article there are some brilliant phrases which surely are not surpassed in any form of English. Perhaps as our climate warms, more of our bulging prison population will be “getting a zebra sun-tan”. There are many politicians who are “like a greased snake on an oiled floor”, and maybe too many of us “have faces like a dropped pie”.
There are some words and phrases of Aussie origin which Fitzsimons does not list. "Rort" in the sense of a scam or fraud, especially involving the misappropriation of public funds has made it into the headline-writer's lexicon, Down Under at least. "Chunder" and "technicolour yawn" were introduced to Britain by Barry Humphries' creation, the Fosters-guzzling Barry McKenzie.
It would be wrong to legislate against the use of Americanisms, especially when they mean something which is not readily expressed in the English of the British Isles. However, we should surely embrace developments from all English-speaking nations, not just from the Americas. Read the article and judge for yourself.
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