bontodger n.
something or someone excellent, first-rate.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Sportsman 5 Dec. 8/6: On Saturday night last at the Gate a hard-faced individual was introduced [...] under the cognomen of Tommy Allen (better known to North Shoreites as the ‘Bon Todger.’) This gentleman challenged all and sundry [...] to do battle for a stake of from £25 to £100. | |
| Sydney Sportsman 17 Apr. 1/6: Once did punter come to tangles, / They went lookin for Clean Sweep. / How the Melbourne Cup bontoger / Missed the ’bus, would make you weep. | |
| Manilla Exp. (NSW) 7 Dec. 5/4: The hard-worked and jolly good little S. W. Moore was a bon tojour – which meant a jolly white man. | |
| Arrow (Sydney) 1 May 9/1: Old Bontodger is a good old chap, and has helped many a lame dog over a stile, an the saying is; but he always says: ‘I do like gratitood!’ [...] The name is not in the directory, but there are Bontodgers everywhere. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 5 May 17/3: ‘Bonster’ is a corruption of Bontojer, pronounced Bontodger; and Bontojer is a corruption of the two French words bon and toujours – ‘always good.’. | |
| Truth (Brisbane) 31 July 2/2: A privileged patron of these ‘pu’ premises is the full-girthed, bull-necked beau ‘bon-toger’ of lewd love, Johnny Hogan, of the old chateau. | |
| Sydney Sportsman 17 Aug. 6/5: [G]etting Jim in the corner, he began to wade in again, but Jim got there first with a ‘bon todger’ to the boko, taking the bark off an inch long. | |
| Truth (Brisbane) 14 Aug. 11/8: And Fitz Bon-Todge, the banker’s clerk / Tore portion of Miss Pintpot’s sark / (He said ‘he did it for a lark!’), / The silly, noodle. | |
| Leader (Orange, NSW) 15 Sept. 2/3: Don’t on your life miss seeing ‘Sweet Lavender,’ to-night. It’s a ‘bon todger.’ (That’s Timbuctoo for ‘A little bit of alright.’) . | |
| Sydney Sportsman 8 Jan. 7/4: This contest will also be a ‘bontoger’. | |
| Referee (Sydney) 29 Sept. 10/3: The preliminary, though always closely fought, was rarely really exciting till the last round which, to use a colloquialism, was a bontoger. | |
| Hillston Spectator (NSW) 22 Dec. 8/3: [advert] FRESH FROM THE CITY – 2000 feet of Sennett Comedy – this is a bon-todger. One of the funniest of Sennett funny pictures – a scream all through. | |
| Sydney Sportsman 3 June 7/5: C. Dolphin as full-back, is a bon-todger, his kicking being a feature of the game. | |
| Nthn Herald (Cairns) 19 Jan. 26/1: ‘What sort of a horse is he?’‘Oh, a real bon-todger! The best lookin’ I ever see. A big upstandin’ jet-black stallion’. | |
| Rugby League News (Sydney) 9 Aug. 3/3: ‘Tedda’ Courtney and Bert Andrews were a couple of good players to throw in and strip for Newtown, and the world knows what a bontodger ‘Tedda’ turned out to be. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Feb. 27/2: If you grab that limb you’ll be able to get that bontodger on the top. |
In derivatives
something or someone excellent, first-rate.
| Pop. Dict. Aus. Sl. 12: BONTOGER, BONTOGERINO: As for ‘bonzer,’ of which they are elaborations. | |
| Dly Teleg. (Sydney) 27 July 4/6: Bonzer first appeared in the mid-19th century as bon or bons, probably from the Scottish bonny or French bon. In a 100 years many forms developed: Bonter, bontager, bontogerino, bontosher. |