| “ | Gas! Petrol! Guzzolene! Listen! Hundreds -- thousands of gallons . . . as much as you want! | ” |
– -Gyro Captain to Max | ||
Guzzolene is the slang term used to refer to gasoline throughout the Mad Max Saga.
Description[]
The term "guzzolene" seems to have replaced gasoline in the Australian Wasteland vernacular. It is used by several characters who are aligned with different groups: Max, Gyro Captain, Feral Kid (as voice-over narration), Wez and others.
Etymology[]
The word "guzzolene" is a portmanteau word. Portmanteau is one word combined from two. In this case, it is a clever play on the words "gasoline" as well as "guzzle," to drink greedily. The word is apropos for the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries in which cars were often called "gas guzzlers."
In the Mad Max Saga[]
Gas, or "guzzolene," is one of the three most precious commodities, aside from water and food, the order of which is, of course, decided by the needy. Guzzolene is often the source of conflict in the Wasteland -- the new Dark Age -- where there are few horses or other beasts of burden and these new-old barbarians, these new-old warriors ride on steel horses or in steel carriages as they wage war with each other for whatever scraps they can find.