Das Wort Öffi war mir neu (im Standard hieß es:
bq. Die Öffis streikten und trotzdem kam jeder irgendwann dort an, wo er hinwollte. Daraus zu schließen, dass ohne Bus und Bim [Bim?] ausgekommen werden kann, hieße die falschen Verkehrsschlüsse zu ziehen ..
Es bedeutet die öffenlichen Verkehrsmittel. Schon 1999 gab es über das Wort in Österreich Beschwerden.Walter Kühner aus Wien schrieb an die Zeitung Fahrgast:
bq. Gerade von der Fahrgast-Vertretung habe ich nicht erwartet, dass sie die Fahrgäste als lallende Kleinkinder anspricht, sondern diese Neuschöpfung kritisch hinterfragt. Über Autos wird ja auch nicht von “Autis” gesprochen. Ich sehe nicht ein, warum ich mich als ÖV-Benützer verunglimpfen lassen soll.
Oder ist Österreich vom Verblödungs-Virus schon generell infiziert, dass alle nur mehr wie Kleinkinder daherreden und es gar nicht mehr merken?
Bim = Straßenbahn (das Österreichische Wörterbuch sagt “Wien, salopp”.) Kleines österreichisch-deutsches Glossar hier.
The word Öffi is used in the Austrian papers to refer to public transport (die öffentlichen Verkehrsmittel). It is a bit disturbing to the Öffis that the strike this week proved that Vienna is less dependent on them than they hoped.
Bim is the tram, apparently named after the noise you can hear here. I’ve heard of Bimmelbahn, but in Germany it means a small train with a bell.
There is a small Austrian-German glossary here.
Bim in Austria, Margaret, is the Straßenbahn: in the UK tram and in the US a streetcar (‘named Desire’ if you’re a fan of Tennessee Williams). The reason is the bim, bim, or rather boing, boing sound the tram makes when the driver rings his bell.
It – and fat right-wing tram passengers taking up more than one seat – used to make a similar sound when I was first a student in Vienna more than 30 years ago.
Thanks, Adrian. You didn’t read the second page with the link to the ‘Bim’ noise?
Whoops! You’re dead right I didn’t. I thought the original question mark was yours and unanswered. I musn’t rush into the answers – as I’m about to with the Mackenzie friend whose origins lie in an Aussie lawyer and not with an Eng. solicitor.
Not in the English case McKenzie v. McKenzie?
(which would mean my spelling was wrong…)
Yes. It was in the Eng. case McKenzie v. McKenzie 1971. My spelling was wrong. The original McKenzie friend was – contrary to legend – very much a qualified lawyer. Being an Aussie – and speaking at a Bar conference I was at in Paris a year ago – he was not allowed rights of audience in the Eng. Appeal Court. That’s why he was consigned to the ‘back benches’. I’m trying to pin down his name. He – and not she – is now one of the highest-ranking officers in the Oz legal profession and/or judiciary.
These days, McKenzie friend is usually synonymous with legally unqualified busybodies who hang around the London High Court and failed law students, one of whom – name-dropping again – I knew personally and was not given leave to help the claimant in the case of Pierre Izzo v. Philip Ross (a firm), 2001.
Google says his name was Mr Hanger.
http://www.andrewgray.uklinux.net/legalsupport/procedures56.html