"mia mia" means: An aboriginal shelter made from bark, a gunya.. This is a fairly neutral word with no inherent risk attached. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than something dangerous. If your child uses it, context will usually make the meaning clear. A brief, curious question about where they heard it is generally enough to know whether to follow up.
mia mia
(Australia) An aboriginal shelter made from bark, a gunya.
Definitions
(Australia) An aboriginal shelter made from bark, a gunya.
1913, William Henry Fitchett, The New World of the South: Australia in the Making, 2006 Elibron Classics, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=uYd8pQ2_ig0C&pg=PA391&dq=%22mia+mia%22|%22mia+mias%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Vh6vT9SBEMaQiQf-7bzeCA&red…
"mia mia" means: An aboriginal shelter made from bark, a gunya.. This is a fairly neutral word with no inherent risk attached. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than something dangerous. If your child uses it, context will usually make the meaning clear. A brief, curious question about where they heard it is generally enough to know whether to follow up.
"mia mia" means: An aboriginal shelter made from bark, a gunya.. Register: neutral, standard English, usable in most everyday contexts. A common non-native mistake is to use the word in the wrong register, or to assume one fixed meaning when it is actually polysemous; always check the surrounding register and the audience before producing it yourself. In formal writing, prefer a neutral synonym or a short descriptive phrase, and use this word only when you have heard or read it being used naturally in a comparable context.
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For specific readers
Why is this section here?
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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Related terms
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Semantically related
- gunyah67%
(Australia) A traditional Aboriginal dwelling made of bark and sticks.
- mirrnyong58%
(Australia, archaeology) A mound of cooking debris accumulated by Aborigines; a kitchen midden.
- mulga57%
(Australia, colloquial, in combination) The outback.
- mickery56%
(Australia) A soak dug into the ground.
- mickery55%
An Australian outback term for a small excavation or hollow dug into dry ground to reach subsurface moisture—essentially a shallow hand-dug well used by Indigenous Australians and later by stockmen and explorers to find water in arid conditions. The technique was crucial for survival in waterless country and was one of many desert survival methods adopted by European settlers from Aboriginal Australians.