I liken regionalisms to spices: each geographically-united cultural group has a way of spicing their food depending on availability of ingredients and acquired tastes. When you move to a different region, your salad may be dressed differently to how you would normally prepare it.
In the specific case of the word ‘bindi’, which is a truncated form of ‘bindi-eye’, we are also dealing with a geographically specific environmental feature: a sharp needle seed-laden weed found in some places like Australia. What this means is that if a place doesn’t grow this weed, these locals may not have a non-scientific word coined for it. If this is true for you, why don’t you adopt the word ‘bindi’ as most Sydneysiders do?
Are you confused about something your Australian friend has said?
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