Where "Munted" Comes From
"Munted" crossed over from New Zealand slang, where it is used just as commonly, before settling comfortably into Australian vocabulary. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest evidence is from 1996, in the Dominion (Wellington, New Zealand). Its exact origin is genuinely murky — no settled etymology has been established by the major dictionaries, with proposed roots ranging from a Germanic word for "lively" to a blend of other slang terms.
It stretches to cover two rather different kinds of ruin: something physically broken or wrecked ("the car's completely munted"), and someone extremely drunk ("he was munted by midnight") — the blunt, thudding sound of the word suits both meanings equally well.
Source:
"That fence is completely munted."
How Aussies Actually Use It
Handy for describing anything physically wrecked, from a car after a prang to a fence knocked over by a storm — "completely munted" leaves no doubt about the state of things.
It's also common on a big night out, where someone might end up just as munted as the fence.
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