Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Australia, derogatory, ethnic slur A refugee who has settled in Australia.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From refugee +‎ -o (“diminutive suffix”).

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Examples

  • So nasho and even the rather official compo and the early pejorative reffo ` refugee 'show a desire to acclimatize the unfamiliar, not to be impressed, to cut down tall poppies.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VII No 2 1980

Comments

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  • "Rose Pickles and her brothers saw them unloading the dust-white truck. They made a crowd standing about down there, and they looked so skinny and tired. They carried a big jarrah table in but no chairs. There were teachests, a clock, shovels and hoes, a couple of bashed old trunks. They all struggled and heaved up the stairs with that little woman barking instructions.

    Cripes, Ted said. And I thought we looked like reffoes."

    Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, p 50 of the Graywolf Press hardcover edition

    March 29, 2010