X. ABBREVIATIONS:— 1. Of Scientific Names 2. General
About a generation ago Mr. Matthew Arnold twitted our nation with the fact that "the journeyman work of literature" was much better done in France—the books of reference, the biographical dictionaries, and the translations from the classics. He did not especially mention dictionaries of the language, because he was speaking in praise of academies, and, as far as France is concerned, the great achievement in that line is Littre and not the Academy's Dictionary. But the reproach has now been rolled away—<i>nous avons change tout cela</i>—and in every branch to which Arnold alluded our journeyman work is quite equal to anything in France.
It is generally allowed that a vast improvement has taken place in translations, whether prose or verse. From quarter to quarter the <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i> continues its stately progress. But the noblest monument of English scholarship is <i>The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles</i>, founded mainly on the materials collected by the Philological Society, edited by Dr. James Murray, and published at the cost of the University of Oxford. The name <i>New</i> will, however, be unsuitable long before the Dictionary is out of date. Its right name is the <i>Oxford English Dictionary</i> (`O.E.D.'). That great dictionary is built up out of quotations specially gathered for it from English books of all kinds and all periods; and Dr. Murray several years ago invited assistance from this end of the world for words and uses of words peculiar to Australasia, or to parts of it. In answer to his call I began to collect; but instances of words must be noted as one comes across them, and of course they do not occur in alphabetical order. The work took time, and when my parcel of quotations had grown into a considerable heap, it occurred to me that the collection, if a little further trouble were expended upon it, might first enjoy an independent existence. Various friends kindly contributed more quotations: and this Book is the result.
In January 1892, having the honour to be President of the
Section of "Literature and the Fine Arts" at the Hobart Meeting
of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science,
I alluded to Dr. Murray's request:
A body like this Section, composed of men from different parts of scattered colonies, might render valuable help in organising the work of collecting authorities for our various peculiar words and usages. Twenty or thirty men and women, each undertaking to read certain books with the new dictionary in mind, and to note in a prescribed fashion what is peculiar, could accomplish all that is needed. Something has been done in Melbourne, but the Colonies have different words and uses of words, and this work is of a kind which might well extend beyond the bounds of a single city. At first it may seem as if our words were few, as if in the hundred years of Australian life few special usages have arisen; but a man with a philological turn of mind, who notes what he hears, will soon find the list grow. Some philologers speak, not perhaps very satisfactorily, of being "at the fountains of language": we can all of us testify to the birth of some words within our own memory, but the origin of these, if not noted, will in time be lost. There are many other words which the strictest cannot condemn as slang, though even slang, being the speech of the people, is not undeserving of some scientific study; words, for instance, which have come into the language from the Aborigines, and names of animals, shrubs, and flowers. It might even be possible, with sufficient co-operation, to produce an Australian dictionary on the same lines as the <i>New English Dictionary</i> by way of supplement to it. Organisation might make the labour light, whilst for many it would from its very nature prove a pleasant task.
These suggestions were not carried out. Individuals sent quotations to Oxford, but no organisation was established to make the collection systematic or complete, and at the next meeting of the Association the Section had ceased to exist, or at least had doffed its literary character.
At a somewhat later date, Messrs. Funk and Wagnall of New York invited me to join an "Advisory Committee on disputed spelling and pronunciation." That firm was then preparing its <i>Standard Dictionary</i>, and one part of the scheme was to obtain opinions as to usage from various parts of the English-speaking world, especially from those whose function it is to teach the English Language. Subsequently, at my own suggestion, the firm appointed me to take charge of the Australian terms in their Dictionary, and I forwarded a certain number of words and phrases in use in Australia. But the accident of the letter A, for Australian, coming early in the alphabet gives my name a higher place than it deserves on the published list of those co-operating in the production of this <i>Standard Dictionary</i>; for with my present knowledge I see that my contribution was lamentably incomplete. Moreover, I joined the Editorial Corps too late to be of real use. Only the final proofs were sent to me, and although my corrections were reported to New York without delay, they arrived too late for any alterations to be effected before the sheets went to press. This took the heart out of my work for that Dictionary. For its modernness, for many of its lexicographical features, and for its splendid illustrations, I entertain a cordial admiration for the book, and I greatly regret the unworthiness of my share in it. It is quite evident that others had contributed Australasian words, and I must confess I hardly like to be held responsible for some of their statements. For instance—
"<i>Aabec</i>. An Australian medicinal bark said to promote perspiration."
I have never heard of it, and my ignorance is shared by the greatest Australian botanist, the Baron von Mueller.
"<i>Beauregarde</i>. The Zebra grass-parrakeet of Australia. From F. beau, regarde. See BEAU n. and REGARD."
As a matter of fact, the name is altered out of recognition, but really comes from the aboriginal <i>budgery</i>, good, and <i>gar</i>, parrot.
"<i>Imou-pine</i>. A large New Zealand tree. . . . called <i>red pine</i> by the colonists and <i>rimu</i> by the natives."
I can find no trace of the spelling "Imou." In a circular to New Zealand newspapers I asked whether it was a known variant. The <i>New Zealand Herald</i> made answer—"He may be sure that the good American dictionary has made a misprint. It was scarcely worth the Professor's while to take notice of mere examples of pakeha ignorance of Maori."
"Swagman. [Slang, Austral.] 1. A dealer in cheap trinkets, etc. 2. A swagger."
In twenty-two years of residence in Australia, I have never heard the former sense.
"<i>Taihoa</i>. [Anglo-Tasmanian.] No hurry; wait."
The word is Maori, and Maori is the language of New Zealand, not of Tasmania.
These examples, I know, are not fair specimens of the accuracy of the Standard Dictionary, but they serve as indications of the necessity for a special book on Australasian English.
In the present day, when words are more and more abbreviated, a "short title" may be counted necessary to the welfare of a book. For this reason "Austral English" has been selected. In its right place in the dictionary the word <i>Austral</i> will be found with illustrations to show that its primary meaning, "southern," is being more and more limited, so that the word may now be used as equivalent to <i>Australasian</i>.
"Austral" or "Australasian English" means all the new words and the new uses of old words that have been added to the English language by reason of the fact that those who speak English have taken up their abode in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. Hasty inference might lead to the remark that such addition is only slang, but the remark is far from being accurate; probably not one-tenth of the new vocabulary could fairly be so classified. A great deal of slang is used in Australasia, but very much less is generated here than is usually believed. In 1895 a literary policeman in Melbourne brought out a small <i>Australian Slang Dictionary</i>. In spite of the name, however, the compiler confesses that "very few of the terms it contains have been invented by Australians." My estimate is that not one word in fifty in his little book has an Australian origin, or even a specially Australian use.
The phrase "Australasian English" includes something much wider than slang. Those who, speaking the tongue of Shakspeare, of Milton, and of Dr. Johnson, came to various parts of Australasia, found a Flora and a Fauna waiting to be named in English. New birds, beasts and fishes, new trees, bushes and flowers, had to receive names for general use. It is probably not too much to say that there never was an instance in history when so many new names were needed, and that there never will be such an occasion again, for never did settlers come, nor can they ever again come, upon Flora and Fauna so completely different from anything seen by them before. When the offshoots of our race first began to settle in America, they found much that was new, but they were still in the same North Temperate zone. Though there is now a considerable divergence between the American and the English vocabulary, especially in technical terms, it is not largely due to great differences in natural history. An oak in America is still a <i>Quercus</i>, not as in Australia a <i>Casuarina</i>. But with the whole tropical region intervening it was to be expected that in the South Temperate Zone many things would be different, and such expectation was amply fulfilled. In early descriptions of Australia it is a sort of commonplace to dwell on this complete variety, to harp on the trees that shed bark not leaves, and the cherries with the stones outside. Since the days when "Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field" never were so many new names called for. Unfortunately, names were not given by the best educated in the community, but often by those least qualified to invent satisfactory names: not by a linguist, a botanist, an ornithologist, an ichthyologist, but by the ordinary settler. Even in countries of old civilisation names are frequently conferred or new words invented, at times with good and at times with unsatisfactory results, by the average man, whom it is the modern fashion to call "the man in the street." Much of Australasian nomenclature is due to "the man in the bush" —more precise address not recorded. Givers of new names may be benefactors to their language or violators of its purity and simplicity, but in either case they are nearly always, like the burial-place of Moses, unknown.
Of Australasian additions to the English language there are two main sources, which correspond to the twofold division of them into new words and new uses of old words.
1. Altered English.
The commoner origin of Australasian English words is the turning and twisting of an already existing English name. The settler saw a fruit somewhat like a cherry. Though he knew well that it was not a cherry, he christened it the "native cherry." It may here be remarked that the prefix native is not a satisfactory distinguishing adjective. Native bear, native cherry, may teach the young Australian that the bear and the cherry so named are not as the bear of the Arctic Regions or the cherry of Europe. But in the British Museum the label does not help much. The settler heard a bird laugh in what he thought an extremely ridiculous manner, its opening notes suggesting a donkey's bray—he called it the "laughing jackass." His descendants have dropped the adjective, and it has come to pass that the word "jackass" denotes to an Australian something quite different from its meaning to other speakers of our English tongue. The settler must have had an imagination. Whip-bird, or Coach-whip, from the sound of the note, Lyre-bird from the appearance of the outspread tail, are admirable names.
Another class of name brought the Australian word nearer to its English use. "Robin" for instance is applied to birds of various species not known in Europe. Bird-names, fish-names, plant-names, are sometimes transferred to new species, sometimes to a new genus, sometimes to an entirely different Natural Order, bearing a resemblance to the original, either real or fancied, as for instance "Magpie." It is hardly necessary to dwell longer on this point, for almost every page of the Dictionary bears witness to it.
2. Words new to the Language.
(a) Aboriginal Australian.
Many of the new Australasian words are taken from the languages of the aborigines, often with considerable alteration due to misunderstanding. Such words are either Australian or Maori. Whilst in New Zealand careful attention has been paid by competent scholars to the musical Maori language, it can hardly be claimed that the Australian family of languages has ever been scientifically studied, though there is a heap of printed material—small grammars and lists of words—<i>rudis indigestaque moles</i>. There is no doubt that the vocabularies used in different parts of Australia and Tasmania varied greatly, and equally little doubt that the languages, in structure and perhaps originally in vocabulary, were more or less connected. About the year 1883, Professor Sayce, of Oxford, wrote a letter, which was published in <i>The Argus</i>, pointing out the obligation that lay upon the Australian colonies to make a scientific study of a vanishing speech. The duty would be stronger were it not for the distressing lack of pence that now is vexing public men. Probably a sum of L300 a year would suffice for an educated inquirer, but his full time for several years would be needed. Such an one should be trained at the University as a linguist and an observer, paying especial attention to logic and to Comparative Philology. Whilst the colonies neglect their opportunities, and Sibylla year by year withdraws her offer, perhaps "the inevitable German" will intervene, and in a well-arranged book bring order out of the chaos of vocabularies and small pamphlets on the subject, all that we have to trust to now.
The need of scientific accuracy is strong. For the purposes of this Dictionary I have been investigating the origin of words, more or less naturalised as English, that come from aboriginal Australian, in number between seventy and a hundred. I have received a great deal of kind assistance, many people taking much trouble to inform me. But there is a manifest lack of knowledge. Many supplied me with the meanings of the words as used in English, but though my appeal was scattered far and wide over Australia (chiefly through the kindness of the newspapers), few could really give the origin of the words. Two amongst the best informed went so far as to say that Australian words have no derivation. That doctrine is hard to accept. A word of three syllables does not spring complete from the brain of an aboriginal as Athene rose fully armed from the head of Zeus.
It is beyond all doubt that the vocabularies of the Aborigines differed widely in different parts. Frequently, the English have carried a word known in one district to a district where it was not known, the aboriginals regarding the word as pure English. In several books statements will be found that such and such a word is not Aboriginal, when it really has an aboriginal source but in a different part of the Continent. Mr. Threlkeld, in his <i>Australian Grammar</i>, which is especially concerned with the language of the Hunter River, gives a list of "barbarisms," words that he considers do not belong to the aboriginal tongue. He says with perfect truth-"Barbarisms have crept into use, introduced by sailors, stockmen, and others, in the use of which both blacks and whites labour under the mistaken idea, that each one is conversing in the other's language." And yet with him a "barbarism" has to be qualified as meaning "not belonging to the Hunter District." But Mr. Threlkeld is not the only writer who will not acknowledge as aboriginal sundry words with an undoubted Australian pedigree.
(b) Maori.
The Maori language, the Italian of the South, has received very different treatment from that meted out by fate and indifference to the aboriginal tongues of Australia. It has been studied by competent scholars, and its grammar has been comprehensively arranged and stated. A Maori Dictionary, compiled more than fifty years ago by a missionary, afterwards a bishop, has been issued in a fourth edition by his son, who is now a bishop. Yet, of Maori also, the same thing is said with respect to etymology. A Maori scholar told me that, when he began the study many years ago, he was warned by a very distinguished scholar not to seek for derivations, as the search was full of pitfalls. It was not maintained that words sprang up without an origin, but that the true origin of most of the words was now lost. In spite of this double warning, it may be maintained that some of the origins both of Maori and of Australian words have been found and are in this book recorded.
The pronunciation of Maori words differs so widely from that of Australian aboriginal names that it seems advisable to insert a note on the subject.
Australian aboriginal words have been written down on no system, and very much at hap-hazard. English people have attempted to express the native sounds phonetically according to English pronunciation. No definite rule has been observed, different persons giving totally different values to represent the consonant and vowel sounds. In a language with a spelling so unphonetic as the English, in which the vowels especially have such uncertain and variable values, the results of this want of system have necessarily been very unsatisfactory and often grotesque. Maori words, on the other hand, have been written down on a simple and consistent system, adopted by the missionaries for the purpose of the translation of the Bible. This system consists in giving the Italian sound to the vowels, every letter—vowel and consonant—having a fixed and invariable value. Maori words are often very melodious. In pronunciation the best rule is to pronounce each syllable with a nearly equal accent.
Care has been taken to remember that this is an Australasian <i>English</i> and not a Maori Dictionary; therefore to exclude words that have not passed into the speech of the settlers. But in New Zealand Maori is much more widely used in the matter of vocabulary than the speech of the aborigines is in Australia, or at any rate in the more settled parts of Australia; and the Maori is in a purer form. Though some words and names have been ridiculously corrupted, the language of those who dwell in the bush in New Zealand can hardly be called <i>Pigeon English</i>, and that is the right name for the "lingo" used in Queensland and Western Australia, which, only partly represented in this book, is indeed a falling away from the language of Bacon and Shakspeare.
In many places in the Dictionary, I find I have used the expression "the law of Hobson-Jobson." The name is an adaptation from the expression used by Col. Yule and Mr. Burnell as a name for their interesting Dictionary of Anglo-Indian words. The law is well recognised, though it has lacked the name, such as I now venture to give it. When a word comes from a foreign language, those who use it, not understanding it properly, give a twist to the word or to some part of it from the hospitable desire to make the word at home in its new quarters, no regard, however, being paid to the sense. The most familiar instance in English is <i>crayfish</i> from the French <i>ecrevisse</i>, though it is well known that a crayfish is not a fish at all. Amongst the Mohammedans in India there is a festival at which the names of "Hassan" and "Hosein" are frequently called out by devotees. Tommy Atkins, to whom the names were naught, converted them into "Hobson, Jobson." That the practice of so altering words is not limited to the English is shown by two perhaps not very familiar instances in French, where "Aunt Sally" has become <i>ane sale</i>, "a dirty donkey," and "bowsprit" has become <i>beau pre</i>, though quite unconnected with "a beautiful meadow." The name "Pigeon English" is itself a good example. It has no connection with pigeon, the bird, but is an Oriental's attempt to pronounce the word "business." It hardly, however, seems necessary to alter the spelling to "pidjin."
It may be thought by some precisians that all Australasian English is a corruption of the language. So too is Anglo-Indian, and, <i>pace</i> Mr. Brander Matthews, there are such things as Americanisms, which were not part of the Elizabethan heritage, though it is perfectly true that many of the American phrases most railed at are pure old English, preserved in the States, though obsolete in Modern England; for the Americans, as Lowell says, "could not take with them any better language than that of Shakspeare." When we hear railing at slang phrases, at Americanisms, some of which are admirably expressive, at various flowers of colonial speech, and at words woven into the texture of our speech by those who live far away from London and from Oxford, and who on the outskirts of the British Empire are brought into contact with new natural objects that need new names, we may think for our comfort on the undoubted fact that the noble and dignified language of the poets, authors and preachers, grouped around Lewis XIV., sprang from debased Latin. For it was not the classical Latin that is the origin of French, but the language of the soldiers and the camp-followers who talked slang and picked words up from every quarter. English has certainly a richer vocabulary, a finer variety of words to express delicate distinctions of meaning, than any language that is or that ever was spoken: and this is because it has always been hospitable in the reception of new words. It is too late a day to close the doors against new words. This <i>Austral English Dictionary</i> merely catalogues and records those which at certain doors have already come in.
The Dictionary thus includes the following classes of Words,
Phrases and Usages; viz.—
(1) Old English names of Natural Objects—Birds, Fishes, Animals, Trees, Plants, etc.—applied (in the first instance by the early settlers) either to new Australian species of such objects, or to new objects bearing a real or fancied resemblance to them—as <i>Robin, Magpie, Herring, Cod, Cat, Bear, Oak, Beech, Pine, Cedar, Cherry, Spinach, Hops, Pea, Rose</i>.
(2) English names of objects applied in Australia to others quite different-as <i>Wattle</i>, a hurdle, applied as the name of the tree <i>Wattle</i>, from whose twigs the hurdle was most readily made; <i>Jackass</i>, an animal, used as the name for the bird <i>Jackass</i>; <i>Cockatoo</i>, a birdname, applied to a small farmer.
(3) Aboriginal Australian and Maori words which have been incorporated unchanged in the language, and which still denote the original object—as <i>Kangaroo, Wombat, Boomerang, Whare, Pa, Kauri</i>.
(4) Aboriginal Australian and Maori words which have been similarly adopted, and which have also had their original meaning extended and applied to other things—as <i>Bunyip, Corrobbery, Warrigal</i>.
(5) Anglicised corruptions of such words—as <i>Copper-Maori, Go-ashore, Cock-a-bully, Paddy-melon, Pudding-ball, Tooky-took</i>.
(6) Fanciful, picturesque, or humorous names given to new Australasian Natural Objects—as <i>Forty-spot, Lyre-bird, Parson-bird, and Coach-whip</i> (birds); <i>Wait-a-while</i> (a tangled thicket); <i>Thousand-jacket, Jimmy Low, Jimmy Donnelly, and Roger Gough</i> (trees); <i>Axe-breaker, Cheese-wood, and Raspberry Jam</i> (timbers); <i>Trumpeter, Schnapper and Sergeant Baker</i> (fishes); <i>Umbrella-grass</i> and <i>Spaniard</i> (native plants), and so on.
(7) Words and phrases of quite new coinage, or arising from quite new objects or orders of things—as <i>Larrikin, Swagman, Billy, Free-selector, Boundary-rider, Black-tracker, Back-blocks, Clear-skin, Dummyism, Bushed.</i>
(8) Scientific names arising exclusively from Australasian necessities, chiefly to denote or describe new Natural Orders, Genera, or Species confined or chiefly appertaining to Australia—as <i>Monotreme, Petrogale, Clianthus, Ephthianura, Dinornis, Eucalypt, Boronia, Ornithorhynchus, Banksia</i>.
(9) Slang (of which the element is comparatively small)— as <i>Deepsinker, Duck-shoving, Hoot, Slushy, Boss-cockie, On-the-Wallaby</i>.
With certain exceptions, this Dictionary is built up, as a Dictionary should be, on quotations, and these are very copious. It may even be thought that their number is too large. It is certainly larger, and in some places the quotations themselves are much longer, than could ever be expected in a general Dictionary of the English Language. This copiousness is, however, the advantage of a special Dictionary. The intention of the quotations is to furnish evidence that a word is used as an English word; and many times the quotation itself furnishes a satisfactory explanation of the meaning. I hope, however, I shall not be held responsible for all the statements in the quotations, even where attention is not drawn to their incorrectness. Sundry Australasian uses of words are given in other dictionaries, as, for instance, in the parts already issued of the <i>Oxford English Dictionary</i> and in <i>The Century</i>, but the space that can be allotted to them in such works is of necessity too small for full explanation. Efforts have been made to select such quotations as should in themselves be interesting, picturesque, and illustrative. In a few cases they may even be humorous.
Moreover, the endeavour has been constant to obtain quotations from all parts of the Australasian Colonies—from books that describe different parts of Australasia, and from newspapers published far and wide. I am conscious that in the latter division Melbourne papers predominate, but this has been due to the accident that living in Melbourne I see more of the Melbourne papers, whilst my friends have sent me more quotations from books and fewer from newspapers.
The quotations, however, are not all explanatory. Many times a quotation is given merely to mark the use of a word at a particular epoch. Quotations are all carefully dated and arranged in their historical order, and thus the exact chronological development of a word has been indicated. The practice of the `O.E.D.' has been followed in this respect and in the matter of quotations generally, though as a rule the titles of books quoted have been more fully expressed here than in that Dictionary. Early quotations have been sought with care, and a very respectable antiquity, about a century, has been thus found for some Australasian words. As far as possible, the spelling, the stops, the capitals, and the italics of the original have been preserved. The result is often a rich variety of spelling the same word in consecutive extracts.
The last decade has been a very active time in Australian science. A great deal of system has been brought into its study, and much rearrangement of classification has followed as the result. Both among birds and plants new species have been distinguished and named: and there has been not a little change in nomenclature. This Dictionary, it must be remembered, is chiefly concerned with vernacular names, but for proper identification, wherever possible, the scientific name is added. In some cases, where there has been a recent change in the latter, both the new and the older names are recorded.
The less-known birds, fishes, plants, and trees are in many cases not illustrated by quotations, but have moved to their places in the Dictionary from lists of repute. Many books have been written on the Natural History of Australia and New Zealand, and these have been placed under contribution. Under the head of Botany no book has been of greater service than Maiden's <i>Useful Native Plants</i>. Unfortunately many scientific men scorn vernacular names, but Mr. Maiden has taken the utmost pains with them, and has thereby largely increased the utility of his volume. For Tasmania there is Mr. Spicer's <i>Handbook of Tasmanian Plants</i>; for New Zealand, Kirk's <i>Forest Flora</i> and Hooker's <i>Botany</i>.
For Australian animals Lydekker's <i>Marsupials and Monotremes</i> is excellent; especially his section on the Phalanger or Australian <i>Opossum</i>, an animal which has been curiously neglected by all Dictionaries of repute. On New Zealand mammals it is not necessary to quote any book; for when the English came, it is said, New Zealand contained no mammal larger than a rat. Captain Cook turned two pigs loose; but it is stated on authority, that these pigs left no descendants. One was ridden to death by Maori boys, and the other was killed for sacrilege: he rooted in a tapu burial-place. Nevertheless, the settlers still call any wild-pig, especially if lean and bony, a "Captain Cook."
For the scientific nomenclature of Australian Botany the <i>Census of Australian Plants</i> by the Baron von Mueller (1889) is indispensable. It has been strictly followed. For fishes reliance has been placed upon Tenison Woods' <i>Fishes and Fisheries of New South Wales</i> (1882), on W. Macleay's <i>Descriptive Catalogue of Australian Fishes</i> (Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales, vols. v. and vi.), and on Dr. Guenther's <i>Study of Fishes</i>. For the scientific nomenclature of Animal Life, the standard of reference has been the <i>Tabular List of all the Australian Birds</i> by E. P. Ramsay of the Australian Museum, Sydney (1888); <i>Catalogue of Australian Mammals</i> by J. O. Ogilby of the Australian Museum, Sydney (1892); <i>Catalogue of Marsupials and Monotremes</i>, British Museum (1888); <i>Prodromus to the Natural History of Victoria</i> by Sir F. McCoy. Constant reference has also been made to Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales, Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Societies of Victoria and Tasmania, and to the journal of the Field Naturalist Club of Victoria.
The birds both in Australia and New Zealand have been handsomely treated by the scientific illustrators. Gould's <i>Birds of Australia</i> and Buller's <i>Birds of New Zealand</i> are indeed monumental works. Neither Gould nor Sir Walter Buller scorns vernacular names. But since the days of the former the number of named species of Australian birds has largely increased, and in January 1895, at the Brisbane Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, a Committee was appointed to draw up a list of vernacular bird-names. By the kindness of a member of this Committee (Mr. A. J. Campbell of Melbourne) I was allowed the use of a list of such vernacular names drawn up by him and Col. Legge for submission to the Committee.
The example of <i>The Century</i> has been followed in the inclusion of sundry scientific names, especially those of genera or Natural Orders of purely Australasian objects. Although it is quite true that these can hardly be described as Australasian <i>English</i>, it is believed that the course adopted will be for the general convenience of those who consult this Dictionary.
Some of these "Neo-Latin" and "Neo-Greek" words are extraordinary in themselves and obscure in their origin, though not through antiquity. In his <i>Student's Pastime</i>, at p. 293, Dr. Skeat says "Nowhere can more ignorant etymologies be found than in works on Botany and `scientific' subjects. Too often, all the science is reserved for the subject, so that there is none to spare for explaining the names."
A generous latitude has also been taken in including some words undoubtedly English, but not exclusively Australasian, such as <i>Anabranch</i>, and <i>Antipodes</i>, and some mining and other terms that are also used in the United States. Convenience of readers is the excuse. <i>Anabranch</i> is more frequently used of Australian rivers than of any others, but perhaps a little pride in tracking the origin of the word has had something to do with its inclusion. Some words have been inserted for purposes of explanation, e.g. <i>Snook</i>, in Australasia called <i>Barracouta</i>, which latter is itself an old name applied in Australasia to a different fish; and <i>Cavally</i>, which is needed to explain <i>Trevally</i>.
There remains the pleasant duty of acknowledging help. Many persons have given me help, whose names can hardly be listed here. A friend, an acquaintance, or sometimes even a stranger, has often sent a single quotation of value, or an explanation of a single word. The Editors of many newspapers have helped not a little by the insertion of a letter or a circular. To all these helpers, and I reckon their number at nearly 200, I tender my hearty thanks.
Various officers of the Melbourne Public Library, and my friend Mr. Edward H. Bromby, the Librarian of this University, have rendered me much assistance. I have often been fortunate enough to obtain information from the greatest living authority on a particular subject: from the Baron von Mueller, from Sir Frederick M'Coy, or from Mr. A. W. Howitt. [Alas! since I penned this sentence, the kind and helpful Baron has been taken from us, and is no longer the greatest living authority on Australian Botany.] My friend and colleague, Professor Baldwin Spencer, a most earnest worker in the field of Australian science, gave many hours of valuable time to set these pages right in the details of scientific explanations. Mr. J. G. Luehmann of Melbourne has kindly answered various questions about Botany, and Mr. A. J. North, of Sydney, in regard to certain birds. Mr. T. S. Hall, of the Biological Department of this University, and Mr. J. J. Fletcher, of Sydney, the Secretary of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales, have rendered me much help. The Rev. John Mathew, of Coburg, near Melbourne, has thrown much light on aboriginal words. The Rev. E. H. Sugden, Master of Queen's College in this University, has furnished a large number of useful quotations. His name is similarly mentioned, <i>honoris causa</i>, in Dr. Murray's Preface to Part I. of the `O. E. D.' Mr. R. T. Elliott of Worcester College, Oxford, has given similar help. The Master himself,—the Master of all who engage in Dictionary work,—Dr. Murray, of Oxford, has kindly forwarded to me a few pithy and valuable comments on my proof-streets. He also made me a strong appeal never to pass on information from any source without acknowledgment. This, the only honest course, I have striven scrupulously to follow; but it is not always easy to trace the sources whence information has been derived.
When gaps in the sequence of quotations were especially apparent on the proofs, Mr. W. Ellis Bird, of Richmond, Victoria, found me many illustrative passages. For New Zealand words a goodly supply of quotations was contributed by Miss Mary Colborne-Veel of Christchurch, author of a volume of poetry called <i>The Fairest of the Angels</i>, by her sister, Miss Gertrude Colborne-Veel, and by Mr. W. H. S. Roberts of Oamaru, author of a little book called <i>Southland in</i> 1856. In the matter of explanation of the origin and meaning of New Zealand terms, Dr. Hocken of Dunedin, Mr. F. R. Chapman of the same city, and Mr. Edward Tregear of Wellington, author of the <i>Maori Polynesian Dictionary</i>, and Secretary of the Polynesian Society, have rendered valuable and material assistance. Dr. Holden of Bellerive, near Hobart, was perhaps my most valued correspondent. After I had failed in one or two quarters to enlist Tasmanian sympathy, he came to the rescue, and gave me much help on Tasmanian words, especially on the Flora and the birds; also on Queensland Flora and on the whole subject of Fishes. Dr. Holden also enlisted later the help of Mr. J. B. Walker, of Hobart, who contributed much to enrich my proofs. But the friend who has given me most help of all has been Mr. J. Lake of St. John's College, Cambridge. When the Dictionary was being prepared for press, he worked with me for some months, very loyally putting my materials into shape. Birds, Animals, and Botany he sub-edited for me, and much of the value of this part of the Book, which is almost an Encyclopaedia rather than a Dictionary, is due to his ready knowledge, his varied attainments, and his willingness to undertake research.
To all who have thus rendered me assistance I tender hearty thanks. It is not their fault if, as is sure to be the case, defects and mistakes are found in this Dictionarv. But should the Book be received with public favour, these shall be corrected in a later edition.
The University, Melbourne,
February 23, 1897
Ait. . . . Aiton.
Andr. . . . Andrews.
B. and L. . Barere and L.
Bail. . . . Baillon.
Bechst. . . Bechstein.
Benth. . . Bentham.
Bl. . . . Bleeker.
Bodd. . . . Boddaert
Bp. )
) . Bonaparte.
Bonap. )
R. Br. . . Robert Brown
Brong. . . Brongniart.
Cab. . . . Cabanis.
Carr. . . . Carriere.
Castln. . . Castelnau.
Cav. . . . Cavanilles.
Corr. . . . Correa.
Cunn. )
) . A. Cunningham
A. Cunn. )
Cuv. . . . Cuvier.
De C. . . . De Candolle.
Dec. . . . Decaisne.
Desf. . . . Desfontaines.
Desm. . . . Desmarest.
Desv. . . . Desvaux.
De Tarrag. . De Tarragon
Diet. . . . Dietrich.
Donov. . . Donovan.
Drap. . . . Drapiez.
Dryand. . . Dryander.
Endl. . . . Endlicher.
Fab. . . . Fabricius.
Forsk. . . Forskael.
Forst. . . Forster.
F. v. M. . . Ferdinand von Mueller
G. Forst. . G. Forster.
Gaertn. . . Gaertner.
Gaim. . . . Gaimard.
Garn. . . . Garnot.
Gaud. . . Gaudichaud.
Geoff. . . Geoffroy.
Germ. . . Germar.
Gmel. . . Gmelin.
Guich. . . Guichenot.
Gunth. . . Guenther.
Harv. . . Harvey.
Hasselq. . . Hasselquin.
Haw. . . . Haworth.
Hens. . . Henslow.
Herb. . . Herbert.
Homb. . . Hombron.
Hook. . . J. Hooker.
Hook. f. . . Hooker fils.
Horsf. . . Horsfield.
Ill. . . . Illiger.
Jacq. . . . Jacquinot.
Jard. . . . Jardine.
L. and S. . Liddell and Scott.
Lab. )
) . Labillardiere.
Labill. )
Lacep. . . Lacepede.
Lath. . . . Latham.
Lehm. . . Lehmann.
Less. . . Lesson.
L'herit. . . L'Heritier.
Licht. . . Lichtenstein.
Lindl. . . Lindley.
Linn. . . . Linnaeus.
Macl. . . . Macleay.
McC. . . . McCoy.
Meissn. . . Meissner.
Menz. . . Menzies.
Milne-Ed. . Milne-Edwards.
Miq. . . . Miquel.
Parlat. . . Parlatore.
Pers. . . . Persoon.
Plan. )
) . Planchol.
Planch. )
Poir. . . Poiret.
Q. . . . Quoy.
Rafll. . . Raffles.
Rein. . . . Reinwardt.
Reiss. . . Reisseck.
Rich. )
) . Richardson.
Richards.)
Roxb. . . Roxburgh
Sal. . . . Salvadori.
Salisb. . . Salisbury.
Schau. . . Schauer.
Schl. )
) . Schlechten
Schlecht.)
Selb. . . . Selby.
Ser. . . . Seringe.
Serv. . . . Serville.
Sieb. . . . Sieber.
Sm. . . . Smith.
Sol. . . . Solander.
Sow. . . . Sowerby.
Sparrm. . . Sparrman.
Steph. . . Stephan.
Sundev. . . Sundevall.
Sw. )
) . Swainson.
Swains. )
Temm. . . Temminck.
Thunb. . . Thunberg.
Tul. . . . Tulasne.
V. and H. . Vigors and Horsfield.
Val. . . . Valenciennes.
Vent. . . . Ventenat.
Vieill. . . Vieillot.
Vig. . . . Vigors.
Wagl. . . . Wagler.
Water. . . Waterhouse.
Wedd. . . . Weddell.
Willd. . . Willdenow.
Zimm. . . . Zimmermann.
q.v. <i>quod vide</i>, which see.
i.q. <i>idem quod</i>, the same as.
ibid. <i>ibidem</i>, in the same book.
i.e. <i>id est</i>, that is.
sc. <i>scilicet</i>, that is to say.
s.v. <i>sub voce</i>, under the word.
cf. <i>confer</i>, compare.
n. noun,
adj. adjective.
v. verb.
prep. preposition.
interj. interjection.
<i>sic</i>, "thus," draws attention to some peculiarity of diction or to what is believed to be a mistake.
N.O. Natural Order.
sp. a species,
spp. various species.
A square bracket [ ] shows an addition to a quotation by way of comment.
O.E.D. "Oxford English Dictionary," often formerly quoted
as "N.E.D." or "New English Dictionary."
<hw>Absentee</hw>, <i>n</i>. euphemistic term for a convict. The word has disappeared with the need for it.
1837. Jas. Mudie, `Felonry of New South Wales,' p. vii.:
"The ludicrous and affected philanthropy of the present Governor of the Colony, in advertising runaway convicts under the soft and gentle name of <i>absentees</i>, is really unaccountable, unless we suppose it possible that his Excellency as a native of Ireland, and as having a well-grounded Hibernian antipathy to his absentee countrymen, uses the term as one expressive both of the criminality of the absentee and of his own abhorrence of the crime."
<hw>Acacia</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. a genus of shrubs or trees, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. The Australian species often form thickets or scrubs, and are much used for hedges. The species are very numerous, and are called provincially by various names, e.g. "Wattle," "Mulga," "Giddea," and "Sally," an Anglicized form of the aboriginal name <i>Sallee</i> (q.v.). The tree peculiar to Tasmania, <i>Acacia riceana</i>, Hensl., (i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, is there called the <i>Drooping Acacia</i>.
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 202:
"We possess above a hundred and thirty species of the acacia."
1839. Dr. J. Shotsky, quoted in `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 5, p. 5, col. 2:
"Yet, Australian sky and nature awaits and merits real artists to portray it. Its gigantic gum and acacia trees, 40 ft. in girth, some of them covered with a most smooth bark, externally as white as chalk. .. ."
1844. L. Leichhardt, Letter in `Cooksland,' by J. D. Lang, p. 91:
"Rosewood Acacia, the wood of which has a very agreeable violet scent like the Myal Acacia (<i>A. pendula</i>) in Liverpool Plains."
1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 149:
"The Acacias are innumerable, all yielding a famous bark for tanning, and a clean and excellent gum."
1869. Mrs. Meredith, `A Tasmanian Memory,' p. 8:
"Acacias fringed with gold."
1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 24:
"The name Acacia, derived from the Greek, and indicative of a thorny plant, was already bestowed by the ancient naturalist and physician Dioscorides on a Gum-Arabic yielding North-African Acacia not dissimilar to some Australian species. This generic name is so familiarly known, that the appellation `Wattle' might well be dispensed with. Indeed the name Acacia is in full use in works on travels and in many popular writings for the numerous Australian species . . . Few of any genera of plants contain more species than Acacia, and in Australia it is the richest of all; about 300 species, as occurring in our continent, have been clearly defined."
<hw>Acrobates</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the Australian genus of <i>Pigmy Flying-Phalangers</i>, or, as they are locally called, <i>Opossum-Mice</i>. See <i>Opossum-Mouse, Flying-Mouse, Flying-Phalanger</i>, and <i>Phalanger</i>. The genus was founded by Desmarest in 1817. (Grk. <i>'akrobataes</i>, walking on tiptoe.)
<hw>AEpyprymnus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus of the <i>Rufous Kangaroo-Rat</i>. It is the tallest and largest of the Kangaroo-Rats (q.v.). (Grk. <i>'aipus</i>, high, and <i>prumnon</i>, the hinder part.)
<hw>Ailuroedus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for the genus of Australian birds called <i>Cat-birds</i> (q.v.). From Grk. <i>'ailouros</i>, a cat, and <i>'eidos</i>, species.
<hw>Ake</hw>, <i>n</i>. originally Akeake, Maori name for either of two small trees, (1) <i>Dodonaea viscosa</i>, Linn., in New Zealand; (2) <i>Olearia traversii</i>, F. v. M., in the Chatham Islands. Ake is originally a Maori <i>adv</i>. meaning "onwards, in time." Archdeacon Williams, in his `Dictionary of New Zealand Language,' says <i>Ake</i>, <i>Ake</i>, <i>Ake</i>, means " for ever and ever." (Edition 182.)
1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' (Church Missionary Society), p.133:
"Akeake, <i>paulo post futurum</i>"
1835. W. Yale, `Some Account of New Zealand,' p. 47:
"Aki, called the <i>Lignum vitae</i> of New Zealand."
1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 43:
"The ake and towai . . . are almost equal, in point of colour, to rosewood."
1883. J. Hector, `Handbook to New Zealand,' p. 131:
"Ake, a small tree, 6 to 12 feet high. Wood very hard, variegated, black and white; used for Maori clubs; abundant in dry woods and forests."
<hw>Alarm-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name no longer used in Australia. There is an African Alarm-bird.
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 9:
"<i>Lobivanellus lobatus</i> (Lath.), Wattled Pewit, Alarm Bird of the Colonists."
<hw>Alectryon</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand tree and flower, <i>Alectryon excelsum</i>, De C., Maori name <i>Titoki</i> (q.v.); called also the <i>New Zealand Oak</i>, from the resemblance of its leaves to those of an oak. Named by botanists from Grk. <i>'alektruown</i>, a cock.
1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' I. 7, p. 16:
"The early season could not yet
Have ripened the alectryon's beads of jet,
Each on its scarlet strawberry set."
<hw>Alexandra Palm</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland tree, <i>Ptychosperma alexandrae</i>, F. v. M. A beautifully marked wood much used for making walking sticks. It grows 70 or 80 feet high.
<hw>Alluvial</hw>, <i>n</i>. the common term in Australia and New Zealand for gold-bearing alluvial soil. The word is also used adjectivally as in England.
1889. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 403:
"The whole of the alluvial will be taken up, and the Terrible
Hollow will re-echo with the sound of pick and shovel."
<hw>Ambrite</hw> (generally called <B>ambrit</B>), <i>n</i>. Mineral [from amber + ite, mineral formative, `O.E.D.'], a fossil resin found in masses amidst lignite coals in various parts of New Zealand. Some identify it with the resin of <i>Dammara australis</i>, generally called <i>Kauri gum</i> (q.v.).
1867. F. von Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 79:
"Although originating probably from a coniferous tree related to the Kauri pine, it nevertheless has been erroneously taken for Kauri gum."—[Footnote]: "It is sufficiently characterised to deserve a special name ; but it comes so near to real <i>amber</i> that it deserves the name of <i>Ambrite</i>."
[This is the earliest use of the word.]
<hw>Anabranch</hw>, <i>n</i>. a branch of a river which leaves it and enters it again. The word is not Australian, though it is generally so reckoned. It is not given in the `Century,' nor in the `Imperial,' nor in `Webster,' nor in the `Standard.' The `O.E.D.' treats <i>Ana</i> as an independent word, rightly explaining it as <i>anastomosing</i>, but its quotation from the `Athenaeum' (1871), on which it relies,is a misprint. For the origin and coinage of the word, see quotation 1834. See the aboriginal name <i>Billabong</i>.
1834. Col.Jackson, `Journal of Royal Geographical Society,' p. 79:
"Such branches of a river as after separation re-unite, I would term <i>anastomosing-branches</i>; or, if a word might be coined, <i>ana-branches</i>, and the islands they form, <i>branch-islands</i>. Thus, if we would say, `the river in this part of its course divides into several <i>ana-branches</i>,' we should immediately understand the subsequent re-union of the branches to the main trunk."
Col. Jackson was for a while Secretary and Editor of the Society's Journal. In Feb. 1847 he resigned that position, and in the journal of that year there is the following amusing ignorance of his proposed word—
1847. `Condensed Account of Sturt's Exploration in the Interior of Australia—Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,' p. 87: