Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Come in Spinner: A History of Two-Up and Its Language

Come in Spinner: A History of Two-Up and Its Language

Moore, Bruce

Paperback

Australia & OceaniaEtymologyGeneral Gambling

PREORDER - Expected ship date October 31, 2026

ISBN10: 1922669423
ISBN13: 9781922669421
Publisher: Australian Scholarly Publishing
Published: Oct 31 2026
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.72
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Two-up shaped Australian slang and culture, revealing how a wartime gamble forged national phrases.

Two-up, a famous Australian soldiers' gambling game, has given Australian English many unique words and phrases. The game is significant in Australia's cultural history. This book is the essential guide to the language and history of the national game.

Bruce Moore explains Two-up's role in the development of the ANZAC legend and provides new evidence that aspects of the game and its terminology have their origins in Ireland. He shows us how the Australian concept of the fair go had its origins in Two-up, and how working-class tenacity saved the game from the efforts of authorities and wowsers to wipe it out.

The well-known phrase come in spinner is just one of the more than 140 Australian words and phrases that have their origin in the game of Two-up. This is the reader's chance to learn about alley loafers, baldie's, bastards on bikes, boxer's, butterflies, cockatoos, floaters, grouter bettors, headies, kips, nit-keepers, nobs, ringmasters, and two-uppians.

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