Coldies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Informal Australian slang for a can or bottle of beer that has been chilled and is ready to drink
2. Australian slang referring to cold beers served chilled, especially a can or bottle of lager on a hot day
3. A chilled alcoholic drink, typically beer, that is served ice-cold in Australian and New Zealand colloquial speech

Etymology: "Coldies" is the plural of "coldie", a slang noun for a cold beer, especially one of the chilled Australian lagers sold in cans or bottles at the bottle shop. The singular is formed from "cold" plus the diminutive suffix "-ie", so the word is literally a shortened form of "cold one", a phrase that has long been used as a casual way of asking for a beer. The same suffix appears in "tinnie", the Australian term for a can of beer, which follows the same pattern of taking a plain noun or adjective and adding "-ie" to give it a friendly, informal ring. "Coldies" therefore belongs to a whole family of clipped Australian drinking words, where the diminutive ending turns a description of the drink into a nickname for it.