Rort.

[Mark Odegard]

This is an Australianism. The online _Sydney Morning Herald_ is wont to use it it its headlines. Looking at the online Macquarie, it's almost as if the SMH *knows* how vulgar the word is in Kiwi.

http://www.dict.mq.edu.au/
(the dictionary box is in the lower left corner)

It sez:
--start quote--
--noun 1.  Australian, NZ an incident or series of incidents involving reprehensible or suspect behaviour, especially by officials or politicians. 2.  Australian a wild party. 3.  NZ ‡ an act of sexual intercourse. 
--verb (t) 4.  Australian, NZ to take wrongful advantage of; abuse: to rort the system. 5.  NZ ‡ to have sexual intercourse with. [origin uncertain]
--rorty, adjective 
--end quote--

The word is used in the SMH much as one would use all the inflections of the f-word. It seems to be a word some precious, smutty-minded American needs to spread far and wide: "Rorts in Jerry Fallwell's Church Rock Lynchburg".

Mark Odegard.



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