Carn
Pronunciation
- IPA: /kÉ‘Ën/
Origin
Adapted from the vernacular pronunciation of c'mon, itself an informal variant of come on. The first uses of the term in its extended sense appear to have been amongst Australian rules football fans in Victoria, with the use later spreading to other states and sports.
Full definition of carn
Interjection
- (Australia, informal) Come on.
- (Australia, informal) An exclamation of support or approval, usually for a sporting (especially football) team.
- 1956 September 10, "Carn the Magpies!", The Argus
- 2001 March 26, "Rabbitohs win hearts and minds of the disaffected", The Sydney Morning HeraldCries of "Carn the Bunnies" rang out, and the talk was of past glories, present disappointments and future hopes.
- 2004 February 12, "Keeping sport local on our ABC", The AgeSurely there is someone in ABC Television management who has read Bruce Dawe's evocative poem Life Cycle: "When children are born in Victoria/they are wrapped in the club-colours, laid in beribboned cots/having already begun a lifetime's barracking/Carn, they cry, carn … feebly at first."
- 2011 October 11, "Carn the Four'n Twenty, says Preston", Herald Sun