Skip to main content

Kōrero: Rural language

The colonial adjective

Image
The colonial adjective

New Zealand ways of speaking were often deplored as rough and crude. The word ‘bloody’, used incessantly and inventively, was also known as ‘the colonial adjective’. This 1905 article from the Tuapeka Times discusses the word’s origins and use.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past

Reference: Tuapeka Times. 15 February 1905, p. 3

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Dianne Bardsley, Rural language – The evolution of rural language, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/document/18583/the-colonial-adjective (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Dianne Bardsley, i tāngia i te 1 March 2009.