I've heard Aussies say, "Fair Dinkum". Can a Dinkum be "Unfair" and more importantly...WTF is a "Dinkum"? Do they stink?

Funny you should ask ...


This is the beginning of the story, which will emerge more strongly in the following decades, that dinkum is Chinese. Here are two recent manifestations of the story:

(2004) Fair dinkum is derived from the Victorian gold rush days when gold had to be sold to government assayers. The Chinese (Cantonese) would say their pickings were ‘ting kum’ meaning genuine gold.3

(2005) It is more than possible that that most dinkum word ‘dinkum’ has its origin in the Chinese ‘ding kam’, meaning ‘real gold’.4

Oz Girl has given you the dinkum answer. She's true blue.

But fair drinkum has a few nuances.

"Fair dinkum!" said in a disparaging tone can mean, Is this bloke serious? Do you expect me to believe that? Or, as my Scots friend might put it, "D'ye think I've a zipper up the back of me heed, Jimmy?"

"Fair dinkum!" said in a tone of wonder is likely to mean, "You little ripper! That's great mate! You really did it."

But a smelly fair dinkum? You're confused. You're thinking of a dunny which translates to British English as a khazi and American as a john. Here's an example to illustrate the usage:

A silly old fellow from Ryde
Fell into a dunny and died.
Later his brother
Fell into another,
And they lay there interred side by side. 

This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 24, 2017 8:57 AM MDT