Listening to the car radio the other day, I heard the word "yutes." I flashed back to the movie My Cousin Vinny, and the scene where the Southern judge is puzzled by what Joe Pesci's character has said.
"Oh, sorry, your honor," Vinny replies. "Youths," he says with careful enunciation.
Hmmm, I thought, as the DJ went on about selling "yutes," whatever they were. Youths for sale? That can't be right.
Fortunately, an Aussie slang dictionary soon set me straight. A "yute," I discovered, is actually a "ute," or utility vehicle. A ute looks different from the American SUV, or sports utility vehicle.
Hmmm, I thought, as the DJ went on about selling "yutes," whatever they were. Youths for sale? That can't be right.
Fortunately, an Aussie slang dictionary soon set me straight. A "yute," I discovered, is actually a "ute," or utility vehicle. A ute looks different from the American SUV, or sports utility vehicle.
A ute has a passenger sedan's body, with a tray on back and a stronger chassis to carry a load. Conflicting stories exist about when the first ute was created, but the most colorful says that a farmer's wife from Gippsland wrote to Ford Australia in the early 1930s, asking for a car that could carry her to church on Sunday and pigs to market on Monday. A Ford engineer then modified a 1933 coupe, and the ute was born.
Whatever the true story is, I can definitely say utes have nothing to do with youths for sale. Or Joe Pesci.
Whatever the true story is, I can definitely say utes have nothing to do with youths for sale. Or Joe Pesci.
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