Dictionary

reffo en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English refugee Latin ō Old French ohbor. Middle English o English O English oh English -o English reffo From refugee + -o (“diminutive suffix”).

Meanings

1. (Australia, derogatory, ethnic, slur) A refugee who has settled in Australia.
   • ‘It may be like this,’ he said ‘Australians are too bloody scared to be frankly unpleasant: Most of them hate the guts of reffos and other alien intruders, especially Jews and Dagos. But they like being liked and cannot resist giving help if it is needed, except, of course, if it′s the boss who needs it.[…]’ 1980, Emery Barcs, Backyard of Mars: Memoirs of the “Reffo” Period in Australia, page 73:
   • On the top floor behind the gabled windows, it was rumored, the reffo family slept. Mishka did not know, until he began attending the regional school in Mossman at the age of six, that he was a reffo. He was born in the Daintree. His mother before him was born in Daintree. But his grandparents had arrived as refugees from a concentration camp in 1946 and the Bartoks were still a reffo family. 2007, Janette Turner Hospital, Orpheus Lost, HarperCollins, published 2010, unnumbered page:
   • ‘There are the reffoes,’ he said loudly. ‘Been here for over a week now and hardly been out at all.[…]’ 2010, Alison Booth, Stillwater Creek, published 2011, page 56:

Forms