slang

Anyone who was into music in the early 80s and heard Men at Work's song, 'Down Under', soon found out what 'Chunder' meant. It became part of my group's slang (North London) within a week and lasted until we all grew up, moved on and drank (much) less.
I'd still use it today with fellow Brits and would expect them to know what it meant. I'd say it was fairly well established, but, you never know what someone from somewhere else in the UK might say, so I'll wait and see...

Since 'Down Under', I've lived in the Midlands and Wales and have never heard anyone say it; I've not lived in Scotland for a few decades but would be surprised if the Scots use it.

Then again, given the meaning, it's not a word one would hear every day - so I'd take my experience with a pinch of salt.

It's very common in Australia, and is used in various whimsical formations such as chunderous and chunderful, and megachunder. Also wellknown in NZ, but not quite as common.

The origin is often quoted as being an abbreviation of "Watch under!" supposedly shouted by people about to throw up over the rail on an upper deck of a ship. I've always felt that this is too neat to be true.

The origin is often quoted as being an abbreviation of "Watch under!" supposedly shouted by people about to throw up over the rail on an upper deck of a ship. I've always felt that this is too neat to be true.

It does sound too neat to be true, Callidus. Then, again...

Not at all familiar to me or used where I live in the US. MIchael Quinion says it's Australian slang that migrated ot the UK. He says it may date to the early 20th C.

He says a tentative explanation is that it is rhyming slang, derived from a series of boot polish ads that featured a character called Chunder Loo of Akim Foo. The ads even spawned a book, The Adventures of Chunder Loo

Chunder Loo = spew.

Read the whole thing

The OED gives that origin as well.

Common in Canada, even before the song.

Not at all familiar to me or used where I live in the US.

I'll go much further than Nutrax and say that the term isn't used in the US at all (even by those of us old enough to remember Men at Work) and wouldn't even be understood by most Americans unless, say, accompanied by loud retching noises.

Online dictionaries (such as this one and this one) list the term as specifically Australian.

I grew up in Canada and have never heard it either. But checking the dates for Men at Work, I had already left. However, on my regular trips to Canada I never hear anyone use it.

I grew up in Canada and have never heard it either.

Yeah, I have to admit to being somewhat skeptical of #6's testimony. It's unusual for an expression to be "common" in Canada and rare-to-non-existent in the States, and a higher-domain (i.e. .ca) search on Google turns up many people with the surname Chunder, some references to mountain biking and skiing (apparently, chunder can also mean "loose earth or snow") but almost no Canadian references to vomiting in the first dozen pages of hits, except for a few direct allusions to the Men at Work song.