A few years ago, when the America’s Cup races were held in Australia, our press carefully pointed out that the yank phrase “root for” (cheer for, hope they’ll win) means something sexual and somewhat rude to the Australians.
If an Aussie goes to a football match and has a favorable inclination for one team winning, what do you call that? I’m guessing “pulling for” is also out.
barrack: verb:- to cheer for your team or player in sport, or to take sides in an argument.
Source: http://www.aussieslang.com/
Other options often used:
*To support * a specific team, or simply *to go for * a team.
Hmm. I thought ‘barrack’ meant ‘criticise harshly’. Must be quite a big difference between UK and AUS definitions there!
I had a semantics lecturer from Manchester who used to tell the story of his local football ground having a sign over the player’s race, Please, No Barracking.
This is a very funny story for an Australian audience.
Thanks, folks. I had wondered about that for a long time.