FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>  
ut all your hands. Not one word more: Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor. Notes on Australianisms. Based on my own speech over the years, with some checking in the dictionaries. Not all of these are peculiar to Australian slang, but are important in Lawson's stories, and carry overtones. barrackers: people who cheer for a sporting team, etc. boko: crazy. bushman/bushwoman: someone who lives an isolated existence, far from cities, "in the bush", "outback". (today: "bushy". In New Zealand it is a timber getter. Lawson was sacked from a forestry job in New Zealand, "because he wasn't a bushman":-) bushranger: an Australian ``highwayman'', who lived in the `bush'-- scrub--and attacked and robbed, especially gold carrying coaches and banks. Romanticised as anti-authoritarian Robin Hood figures-- cf. Ned Kelly--but usually very violent. US use was very different (more = explorer), though some lexicographers think the word (along with "bush" in this sense) was borrowed from the US... churchyarder: Sounding as if dying--ready for the churchyard = cemetery cobber: mate, friend. Used to be derived from Hebrew chaver via Yiddish. General opinion now seems to be that it entered the language too early for that--and an English etymology is preferred. fiver: a five pound (sterling) note (or "bill") fossick: pick out gold, in a fairly desultory fashion. In old "mullock" heaps or crvices in rocks. jackaroo: (Jack + kangaroo; sometimes jackeroo)--someone, in early days a new immigrant from England, learning to work on a sheep/cattle station (U.S. "ranch".) kiddy: young child. "kid" plus ubiquitous Australia "-y" or "-ie" nobbler: a drink, esp. of spirits overlanding: driving (or, "droving", cattle from pasture to market or railhead.) pannikin: a metal mug. Pipeclay: or Eurunderee, Where Lawson spent much of his early life (including his three years of school... Poley: name for s hornless (or dehorned) cow. skillion(-room): A "lean-to", a room built up against the back of some other building, with separate roof. sliprails: portion of a fence where the rails are lossely fitted so that they may be removed from one side and animal let through. smoke-ho: a short break from, esp., heavy physical work, and those who wish to can smoke. sov.: sovereign, gold coin worth one pound sterling splosh:
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>  



Top keywords:
Lawson
 

bushman

 

cattle

 
sterling
 

Zealand

 
Australian
 

learning

 

station

 

sovereign

 

spirits


overlanding

 
driving
 

nobbler

 

ubiquitous

 

Australia

 

fairly

 

desultory

 

fashion

 

fossick

 
splosh

mullock

 

jackeroo

 
immigrant
 

kangaroo

 

crvices

 

jackaroo

 

England

 
market
 

removed

 
skillion

animal

 

portion

 

lossely

 

sliprails

 
building
 

separate

 

dehorned

 
Pipeclay
 

Eurunderee

 

pannikin


pasture

 
fitted
 

railhead

 

physical

 

hornless

 

including

 

school

 

droving

 

friend

 

isolated