Meanings
- AustraliaderogatoryslanguncountablePolitical spin; speech used by a politician that is equivocal or mendacious.
It isn't difficult to make one's life meaningful without the mumbo-jumbo of pollyspeak and endless streams of words, words, words...
2001, Marc in Oz, “Vote with your wallet”, in alt.politics.greens (Usenet)2 more examples
Sure, put them as a batch/job lot with their own kind. Put them in the public gallery of any Australian parliament and force feed them ‘pollyspeak’.
2000 June 30, Harold Wood, “ANOTHER 'MADDIE' STRIKES.”, in aus.general (Usenet)It is pollyspeak or polyspeak or doubletalk, or lies. No GST No ETS Coal jobs safe = they are truly fucked now on a quick scan I didn't see he actually said they would be safe, tahts^([sic]) part of the trick, say something they want to be interpreted as 'safe' but not actually say it. The[y] have years of practise, they are really good at it.
2011 March 25, i||||||||||||||||| 2.0, “Coal jobs "safe": Combet”, in aus.politics (Usenet)
Origin
From pollie + -speak, with spelling shift.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pollyspeak. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pollyspeak
“pollyspeak.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pollyspeak. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pollyspeak,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pollyspeak.
Source: pollyspeak on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.