yakkan.
/ˈjakə/, U.S. /ˈjækə/, Australian English /ˈjækə/ Australian slang.
Work, toil; esp. in hard yakka.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > manner of action > effort or exertion > [noun] > labour or toil
workeOE
i-swincheOE
swenchOE
swote971
swingc1000
swinkOE
swinkinga1225
travailc1275
cark1330
sweatc1380
the sweat of (one's) brow (brows), facec1380
laboura1382
swengc1400
labouragec1470
toil1495
laborationa1500
tug1504
urea1510
carp1548
turmoil1569
moil1612
praelabour1663
fatigue1669
insudation1669
till?a1800
Kaffir work1848
graft1853
workfulness1854
collar-work1871
yakka1888
swot1899
heavy lifting1934
1888 Boomerang 14 Jan. 13 The Brisbane wharf labourers..are so accustomed to hard yacker that they can't be happy for a single day without it.
1898 Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Oct. 31/2 Some [swagmen] ask for ‘yacker’, some's lookin' for ‘graft’, and some's ‘after a job’.
1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands viii. 104 Iv yeh don't do yer fair share iv yacker this after, I'll punt ther slacks off yer.
1909 T. H. Thompson Ballads about Business 91 You'll be sure to get some yacker and more country you will see.
1939 X. Herbert in E. M. Fry Tales by Australians 133 It'd be a richer country if everyone..did real hard honest yakker.
1944 Coast to Coast 1943 121 They'd been shoved in the background, told they weren't wanted, all the hard yacca put upon them in the home.
1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) x. 139 I vote we leave the Methodist part alone, and go and clear up where somebody's going to get some benefit out of our yacka.
1948 V. Palmer Golconda iv. 28 If there's a cove on this field making money at anything but hard yakker it isn't Macy Donovan.
1968 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 6/7 Australian scholarships have always been hard yakka.
1981 National Times (Austral.) 2 Aug. 29/1 He imposes some hard yakka on his readers.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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n.1888