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| Pic courtesy South China Morning Post |
I've blogged before, gentle reader, about the relevance of language, and observed how it has changed and developed during my lifetime.
According to the Dictionary of Australian Slang, the term "Mug Lair" means a "flashily dressed young man of brash and vulgar behaviour".
The Oxford Dictionary definition describes a "person who is stupid and vulgar", adding for effect "a two bob mug lair, all bleach and trousers", although I've heard "all mouth and trousers"
And finally, Acronyms and Slang uses "a bothersome show-off" as its definition.
If we break it down, a "mug" is generally accepted as a gullible person, and a "lair" as an attention seeker, although putting the two words together subtly alters the impact of the description.
It's a great shame that the Australian slang term has largely been left behind in common use. My grandfather and father would have been very familiar with it.
Mind you, they inhabited an Australia which was unsullied by language dragged across the Pacific by social media.
Across the pacific, one third of American voters* set up an electoral college that gave power to a classic Mug Lair. There were 241,184,779 eligible voters in 2024. Of those, 32% voted for the Mug Lair; 31% voted for Harris; and 36% did not vote.
The definition is a perfect fit, except he is no longer young.
*One third didn't vote, one third voted for his opponent, and one third voted for the Mug Lair.
