Hammerbarn

English

Etymology

From Hammerbarn, a fictional hardware retail store that appears in the Australian children's TV series Bluey, first introduced in the second episode of the second season which first aired in Australia on 18 March 2020. Itself from hammer +‎ barn, likely to evoke the idea of a large warehouse in which tools and hardware supplies are sold.

Noun

Hammerbarn (plural Hammerbarns)

1. (slang, chiefly Australia, neologism) A store selling goods for home improvement and DIY, and household hardware.
   • 2020 December 13, @StefanEJones, Twitter‎^[1]:

     I'm replacing my living room carpet with tile. I think I might be able to replace the shabby bathroom linoleum too.
     
     Off to Hammerbarn to look at bathroom tile.

   • 2021 October 31, @onlyapaprmoon, Twitter‎^[2]:

     One of these on special at Hammerbarn. I do have to keep on top of it, mowing once a week at the moment or I run out of charge about ⅔ of the way through. Same deal when I moved the height down a notch, ran out of battery before finished

   • 2022 July 28, @oberonsghost, Twitter‎^[3]:

     I have just been patronised terribly by a blokey bloke attendant at the Hammerbarn. My crime, I’m a girl who wanted to fix her own dunny seat, and didn't want the cheap nasty one. I complained.

   • 2023 April 15, @76Wilbury, Twitter‎^[4]:

     [discussing Star Wars-themed garden statues] Everytime I walk passed ^[sic] those at the local Hammerbarn, the Boba [Fett] and Mando [the Mandalorian] ones get me thinking of Jango [Fett] and that is maybe not that great an association to be conjuring...

   • 2024 May 20, @DLoweryAU, Twitter‎^[5]:

     Today has been very bloody draining. Psych for child, GP for me and the bloody emotional cofferdam was broken, then off to Hammerbarn for something no-one could find, then fucking idiot drivers, now 15 minutes to sit on my arse before school pickup.

Usage notes

• In Australia, Hammerbarn typically refers specifically to Bunnings, an Australian chain of household hardware and garden centre retail stores upon which the Hammerbarn store in the TV series was likely based.