What it means
Sunnies is the everyday Aussie and Kiwi word for sunglasses. Plain, normal, everywhere. It fits anything from fancy designer pairs to cheap servo ones. It’s one of those clipped, friendly Antipodean forms that keeps speech quick and easy, so once the sun’s kicking off, sunnies comes out constantly.
Usage examples
"Chuck your sunnies on, mate, it’s blazing. I left mine in the car and walked to the servo squinting like a stunned mullet."
"Forgot my sunnies on the dash of the ute, came back from the beach with a headache the size of Sydney, and the dog laughing at me from the back seat like he knew all along."
"Pop your sunnies on for the walk to school, love, the glare off the harbour at half eight is no joke, your dad still squints from last Tuesday morning at the bus stop in Mt Eden."
"You seen my sunnies anywhere? I chucked them on the café table and now they’ve done a little vanishing act."
"Grab your sunnies before we head out, the sun’s properly going for it and I’m not spending the whole arvo squinting."
Where it comes from
Sunnies is an Australian and New Zealand shortening of sunglasses, built with the familiar -ies ending that shows up in heaps of Antipodean slang. It’s been around in Australian English since the 20th century and settled naturally into New Zealand casual speech too. These days it’s fully everyday stuff.
Editors of this term
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