pokie

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pō'kē, IPA^(key): /ˈpəʊki/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -əʊki
• Homophone: pokey

Etymology 1

From clipping of poker machine +‎ -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

Noun

pokie (plural pokies)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang, chiefly in the plural) Synonym of poker machine, an electronic game of chance played for money, especially slot machines.
   • 2004, Bernard Salt, The Big Shift, page 77:

     For several decades until the early 1990s, Echuca–Moama existed in the consciousness of Melburnians as the destination for pokie bus-trips. All of this changed when the Kennett Government legalised pokies in Victoria in 1993.

   • 2006, author not known, Sydney City Guide, Lonely Planet, page 148,

     In reality, the cheap beer and walls of pokies attract anyone and everyone.

   • 2008, Catherine Deveny, Say When, page 171:

     None of these people around me punching the pokies has walked in here today expecting to be a loser.

   • 2023 July 21, Billie Schwab Dunn, “I Tried Wetherspoons Food for the First Time-I Feared I'd Get Scurvy...”, in Daily Star:

     I was also shocked that the poker machines (which we call pokies back home) were on full display, as in Australia, they legally have to be in a separate room.

Derived terms

• pokie machine

 

Etymology 2

Shortening of a mispronunciation of genus name Poecilotheria

Noun

pokie (plural pokies)

1. (informal) Any of several species of arboreal tarantula in the genus Poecilotheria.

Further reading

• Poecilotheria on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Poecilotheria on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Poecilotheria on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons