Abbott's 'shirtfront' gets new meaning

The Australian prime minister's threat to "shirtfront" Russia's president during an international summit this month has prompted a dictionary to broaden its definition of the word beyond an Australian football term for a shoulder charge to an opponent's chest.

Russian officials ridiculed the threat made by Prime Minister Tony Abbott at a news conference, warning that President Vladimir Putin is a judo expert.

Susan Butler, editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, the definitive authority on Australian English, said on Monday that the controversy made her editors realize that the term has taken on a broader meaning in recent decades than an illegal maneuver on the football field.

"I don't think that Aussie rules (football) thingwhich is a head-on charge aiming to knock someone to the groundis what was meant," Butler said of Abbott's threat. "It was a more general thing of grabbing someone by the shirt."

Abbott, an athletic 56-year-old former amateur boxer, never explained what he meant when he said he planned to "shirtfront" Putin, 62, when the pair met at the G20 summit in Brisbane.

AP