Where "Perk" Comes From
“Perk” is an Australian slang word meaning to vomit, usually after a heavy session on the grog. Green’s Dictionary of Slang tags it Aus. and suggests it is either an echo of the sound or possibly related to another “perk” entry, without settling which.
The earliest dated use in Green’s is 1921, in Ernest Lynch’s First World War book Somme Mud, where a soldier says “He’s going to be sick. Goin’ to perk.” It turns up in a 1949 Sydney Sun-Herald, a 1967 Kings Cross Whisper glossary, and a 1972 Australian swearing guide that calls it “an alternative to chundering”. Green’s latest dated example is a 1999 list of Australian vomit words in Graeme Seal’s Lingo.
Source:
“He went quiet, headed outside and perked in the garden.”
How Aussies Actually Use It
It is a good one to know because it looks like the everyday “perk up”, but it means the opposite of feeling better. The 1972 guide even jokes that offering someone a cup of coffee to “perk up” might not go down well. The better-known Aussie words for the same thing are “chunder” and “technicolour yawn”.
Say It Like an Aussie
Say it: PERK.
In conversation:
- He went quiet, headed outside and perked in the garden.
- She perked after too much cake.
- Someone perked in the car park.
Good to know: Here “perk” means to vomit, which is different from “perk up”. It’s an old Aussie word, so you’ll mostly find it in older writing.
See also: Chunder, Technicolour yawn
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