Bungees II

Occies.

Is that what you call them? I've never seen that word.

As in 'octopus straps'. Australian English is great at creating shortened forms ending in 'ies' or 'y'.

Ahhh...makes sense now. I take it that's what you call these instead of bungees, or maybe in addition to bungees.

Yes, it is, I've noticed! In my head I was pronouncing it "ossies."

I thought caterpillars or snakes at first!
Now I understand why bungee-jumping is so called. This is the first time I have known what bungees are. Maybe we use the same word for these stretchy rope things in the UK, and maybe we don't. Never having had to buy one or use one I've never had any reason to think about it.
I had unthinkingly assumed that Bungee was the name of the first (mad) protagonist of the art of Bungee-jumping where it originated in New Zealand ... "Don't jump, Bungee!!!! AGHHH - He's gone and done it"

Lol! Wow, never heard of bungees. I looked up the etymology and there are slightly different nuances among the recognized dictionaries. tinyurl.com/yapwwesm

OnlineEtymology (US): "British schoolboy slang for "rubber eraser;" this probably is more or less onomatopoeic, from notions of bouncy + spongy. First record of bungee jumping is from 1979."

The Macquarie Dictionary (AU): "mate, friend. Used in North Queensland (Mareeba). May have aboriginal origins: Hey, bungee. How are you going?"

Oxford: "1930s (denoting an elasticated cord for launching a glider): of unknown origin."

Slimey yikes