reffon.
/ˈrɛfəʊ/, U.S. /ˈrɛfoʊ/, Australian English /ˈrefoʊ/ Australian slang (derogatory and offensive).
Originally: a European refugee, spec. one from Germany or German-occupied Europe before the Second World War (1939–45). Now gen.: any refugee or immigrant.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > exile > [noun] > refugee or stateless person > specific
palatine1708
palatinate1709
political refugee1798
reffo1941
war refugee1942
boat person1979
Marielito1980
1941 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang 59 Reffo, a refugee from Europe.
1951 D. Cusack & F. James Come in Spinner 278 ‘The woman's a Viennese.’ ‘Oh, a reffo?’
1955 J. Cleary Justin Bayard x. 137 She talked even now in her letters of the Dagoes and Balts and reffos, the New Australians, who were taking over the country.
1961 P. White Riders in Chariot 221 He was..a blasted foreigner, and bloody reffo, and should have been glad he was allowed to exist at all.
1984 Today's Computers Nov. 160/2 The Australian Government would probably have considered me just another reffo and I'd have had to go back to school.
2007 C. Tatz et al. Worlds Apart iv. 67 South Africans are hardly deplored by Australians in the manner of the ‘reffos’ of the 1930s.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1941