Shout (noun and verb) in Australian and New Zealand English, refers to an act of spontaneous giving.
Its primary use is in pub culture, where one person in a group elects to pay for a
round of drinks
A round of drinks is a set of alcoholic beverages purchased by one person in a group for that complete group. The purchaser buys the round of drinks as a single order at the bar. In many places it is customary for people to take turns buying rou ...
for that group.
It may be that person's polite way of leaving the group to go elsewhere.
By extension, it can refer to paying for another person's purchase; something they have chosen or will choose for themselves, as distinct from a gift or present.
Typical constructions are:
*"My shout", perhaps to expedite a minor transaction, as when paying for a shared meal.
*"I'll shout you to the pictures"; "I'll shout you a new dress"
*"He shouted her to a slap-up meal"
Historically, the term "shout" was used by
Rolf Boldrewood
Thomas Alexander Browne (born Brown, 6 August 1826 – 11 March 1915) was an Australian author who published many of his works under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood. He is best known for his 1882 bushranging novel '' Robbery Under Arms''.
Biog ...
in ''A Colonial Reformer'' (1877),
Henry Lawson
Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial perio ...
in his poem "The Glass on the Bar" (1890),
Jack Moses
Jack Moses (12 January 1861 – 10 July 1945)Rutledge, Martha, 'Moses, John (Jack) (1861–1945)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/moses-john-jack- ...
in ''Beyond the City Gates'' (1923) and
Dal Stivens
Dallas George "Dal" Stivens (31 December 1911 – 15 June 1997) was an Australian writer who produced six novels and eight collections of short stories between 1936, when ''The Tramp and Other Stories'' was published, and 1976, when his last colle ...
in ''The Courtship of Uncle Henry'' (1946).
References
{{Reflist
Australian English