Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. based on the shape of a spade or shovel.

2. any Australian or New Zealander, although orig. a soldier [form of address used by miners in the 19C Aus./N.Z. gold-fields; it spread after Aus./N.Z. participation in WWI; note Fraser & Gibbons, Soldier & Sailor Words & Phrases (1925): ‘Australians specially claimed it [...] for their trench work at Gallipoli, and New Zealanders for the work of the N.Z. Tunnelling Company on the Western front’].

1851		Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal 10 Sept. 2/2: Being myself a digger, my chances of ascertaining the real, naked truth are very much superior to those of the Sydney tourist [Moore 2000].
1857		C. Kingsley Two Years Ago I 94: Ah! a ’Stralian digger, by the beard of him, and his red jersey.
1867		‘Where’s your License’ in Victorian Song-book 6: Diggers ain’t often caught on the hop, The little word Joe! which all of you know, Is a signal the traps are quite near [F&H].
1870		M.A. Barker Station Life in N.Z. 191: We were politely told to ‘wire in,’ – digger’s phraseology for an invitation to commence.
1894		H. Lawson ‘A Wild Irishman’ in Roderick (1972) 190: He was just a big, dark, blue-eyed Irish digger.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 148: This Charley Cross, or Yankee Charley, was an old Victorian digger.
1919		Aussie (France) 12 Mar. 3/1: The Digger became condescending in his attitude. There was not much in these foreign languages after all.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 459: Digger. The N.Z. troops were strongly of the opinion that this applied to them alone and not to the Australian troops.
1928		A.W. Upfield House of Cain 251: It seems to me, my bonny old digger, that we’re about to enter the shoot first, shoot straight, and keep on shooting stage.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 14: [T]here were always diggers [...] passing by with ‘Good day, dig’.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 164: I kept on saying, ‘Over the top and the best of luck, Digger’ [...] if you say that to an Australian you can take his trousers off of him.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 279: Old ‘diggers’ who had seen service in the last war.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 331: This flash-tailored bunch with their fancy buckled shoes, bent on doing an honest digger in for his beer.
1960		A. Seymour One Day of the Year (1977) I i: It’s Anzac Day this week, that’s my day, that’s the old digger’s day.
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 48: They spent most of their off-duty hours with the ‘diggers’ of the First Battalion.
1971		K. Gilbert Cherry Pickers I i: I was a digger in the Great War — I did fight for my country.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 5: ‘Digger’ [...] is reserved for members of the Returned Servicemen's League, and is,normally only heard on Anzuc Day, usually in the same reverent breath as the word ‘Gallipoli’.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 36/1: digger Anzac soldier; originally a goldminer or digger; used in a matey greeting.
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘Casey’s Wace’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] [S]ome old digger rang him on Anzac Day for a whinge about the Japs and what they did [...] when he was a POW.
1999		N. Stephenson Cryptonomicon 262: The rumor [...] is that a digger – an Australian grunt – found it.
2000		Ozwords Apr. 1: The term digger in the military sense is a transferred use of the meaning ‘a miner on the Australian goldfields’. Throughout the twentieth century it retained the military associations established in the First World War (it was widely used during the Second World War, and during the Vietnam War the Americans still knew the Australians as ‘diggers’). The term has also undergone a widening of meaning: in many contexts ‘digger’ and its abbreviated form ‘dig’ are used devoid of their military connotations (as a synonym for ‘cobber’ or ‘mate’).

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1918		H.V. O’Brien diary 26 Sept. in Wine, Women and War (1926) 205: Australians making trouble for English. ‘Digger’ private passed on street by English ‘brass hat’.
1954		K. Amis letter 20 Dec. in Leader (2000) 418: Actually I’m feeling quite friendly towards cobbers for the moment because some digger rag in Melbourne wants to serialise Jim.

4. (Aus.) used as a qualifier to indicate the ostentation of the newly rich diggers, i.e. gold miners.

2000

(ref. to mid-19C) Australian 26 Feb. R11: A ‘digger’s bride’ flaunted her wealth at her wedding ceremony, and a ‘digger’s wedding’ had ostentation as its motif — with a lengthy carriage procession through town to display the couple’s good fortune to everybody.

5. a term of (affectionate) address.

1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 Sept. 8/2: The term Digger is a very universal one in France; and it’s fairly recent in origin. It has supplanted ‘Billjim’ and ‘Billzac’ as generic terms – and even ‘Cobber,’ as a name by which you accost your friends, is quite out of it. ‘Hullo, Digger’, is the greeting now.
1926		J. Doone Timely Tips For New Australians 17: DIGGER. — A familiar term of address such as ‘friend’ or comrade. Originally it was only applied to soliders but now its use is universal.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 173: ‘What’s up, digger?’ asked the policeman.
1953		D. Cusack Caddie 208: Here it is, digger.
1970		N. Beagley Up and Down Under 79: ‘Hello, Digger,’ was their greeting.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 62: Giveusa smoke, fer Crissake, will ya, Digger?
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 244: Hey, hold on, digger. There’s nothing wrong with our cooking.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘How are they hangin’, digger.’ ‘One each side of the seam, mate’.