“Budgie Smugglers” Officially Added to the Oxford English Dictionary

We're in the dictionary! Swimmers are somebody now!

We’re in the dictionary! Swimmers are somebody now!

The Oxford English Dictionary doesn’t just list new words that come about in the modern world in their annual expansions.  Updates can include phrases like “starter marriage,”  modern revisions of old words like “bittem,” and initialisms like the familiar ROFL that were all added this year.   Among more than 1000 new words and over 2000 fully revised or partially expanded entries listed in the OED 2016 Update is the term “Budgie Smugglers.”  

I am assuming that being a swimmer or a swammer you can figure out what a budgie smuggler is, but just in case, it is a slang term for a tight-fitting brief style swim suit.  Ummm… yeah, sorry for the image that probably just produced in your mind.

That’s right– the Oxford English Dictionary didn’t just embrace the brief in 2016… they chose to include a term that is still unfamiliar enough in America that it can even make the competitive swimmers who wear them cringe.

Please for the love of all that's holy don't do a google image search for "budgie smuggler."

Please for the love of all that’s holy DO NOT google image search “budgie smuggler.”

According to Business Insider, the term is dated to 1998 with it’s use in the Australian mockumentary TV series “The Games,” but it was apparently a well known description of our traditional practice suits long before that down under.  The Urban Dictionary has listed it since 2006, and there is even a custom swimsuit company in Australia named Budgy Smuggler whose website says “when it comes to smuggling your budgy there can be no compromise in quality.”  Admit it– you all wish they were your sponsor, right?  

While it is nice to have a new swim term added to the dictionary, we may have reached a new level of awkward.  Maybe we should try to keep this on the down-low, because as soon as this makes the rounds in the junior high vocabulary classes it is gonna be a lot harder to recruit freshmen to try out for your high school swim team.

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Robbert
8 years ago

30+ years as a swimmer. I’ve never heard that term before.

Chris
Reply to  Robbert
8 years ago

Every ocean swim in Australia is rife with budgy smuggler branded suits, typically in hot pink, neon green or other attention grabbing colo(u)rs. The wife shot me down on bringing a bunch back to the States!

Shanmac
Reply to  Robbert
8 years ago

I can’t remember a time in Australia that men’s swim briefs weren’t called Budgie smugglers. A more descriptive but less crass term than DT’s. ????

Stay Human
Reply to  Robbert
8 years ago

It’s no worse than the USAmerican version “Banana Hammock”

Borat
Reply to  Stay Human
8 years ago

Very nice!

King in da norf
8 years ago

Apparently googling budgie smugglers swimmers led me to Australian swimmers.

King in da norf
8 years ago

Seven budgie smugglers, with one Joerg Hoffmann -supposedly the last of East German male product- the only one in bodysuit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ9w3fsBWwY

King in da norf
8 years ago

Sorry, I *really* had to google budgie smuggler

King in da norf
8 years ago

The fourth last WR broken in budgie smuggler, 400 WR in 3:41.83 by Ian Thorpe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnz08P6sQEQ

King in da norf
8 years ago

Ian Thorpe in budgie smuggler held off Jazon Lezak in jammer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcXx6deiLA8

Coach Chackett
Reply to  King in da norf
8 years ago

Captain Walker went quickly in the third leg.