Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Thanks, Clive James - now I know!

Clive on Question Time has just enlightened me about rorting. He says it's a good old Australian word.

I don't get out so often among the Aussie diaspora, so I've only ever met a rort in the posts of John McMullan - thrice if I'm not mistaken in recent months.

Wikipedia tells me its first recorded use was in 1919 though it has some London slang antecedents.

So is it Aussie or Kiwi? Which jurisdiction has more experience of it?

Tags for Forum Posts: 'Clive, James', rort, rorting

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on November 12, 2010 at 0:31

Australian. I haven't heard it used in NZ but it could be a slang expression as part of pub talk.

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Permalink Reply by Malc B on November 12, 2010 at 15:31

It's definitely used in NZ. And not only by me, and not only in pubs...

But by politicians: http://www.labour.org.nz/news/government-turns-blind-eye-state-powe...
and http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/q-mana-election-debate-3869123

and judges: http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/4305689/Woman-bough...

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on November 14, 2010 at 11:32

It's one of the newly added words in the Oxford English Dictionary - still available online to Haringey Library members. Other current featured additions: dubstep; eggcorn; and Rosie the Riveter (noun).

Eggcorn, by the way, is a great word which deserves wide usage.

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on November 14, 2010 at 12:30

I've always used it in terms of someone "rorting" a benefits system but more through inaction, for instance, not declaring a live in partner in NZ if you're a single woman on the Domestic Purposes Benefit. Fraud is, to my mind, a much less passive enterprise.

Poor people = rorting.
Rich people = fraud.