Austral English Part 14

1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 70:

"The `come-back' variety (of boomerang) is not a fighting weapon. A dialect name for it is bargan, which word may be explained in our language to mean `bent like a sickle or crescent moon.'"

Barking Owl, n. a bird not identified, and not in Gould (who accompanied Leichhardt).

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition, p. 47:

"The glucking-bird and the barking-owl were heard throughout the moonlight night."

Barrack, v. to jeer at opponents, to interrupt noisily, to make a disturbance; with the preposition "for," to support as a partisan, generally with clamour. An Australian football term dating from about 1880. The verb has been ruled unparliamentary by the Speaker in the Victorian Legislative a.s.sembly. It is, however, in very common colloquial use. It is from the aboriginal word borak (q.v.), and the sense of jeering is earlier than that of supporting, but jeering at one side is akin to cheering for the other. Another suggested derivation is from the Irish p.r.o.nunciation of "Bark," as (according to the usually accepted view) "Larrikin" from "larking." But the former explanation is the more probable.

There is no connection with soldiers' "barracks;" nor is it likely that there is any, as has been ingeniously suggested, with the French word baragouin, gibberish.

1890. `Melbourne Punch,' Aug. 14, p. 106, col. 3:

"To use a football phrase, they all to a man `barrack' for the British Lion."

1893. `The Age,' June 17, p. 15, col. 4:

"[The boy] goes much to football matches, where he barracks, and in a general way makes himself intolerable."

1893. `The Argus,' July 5, p. 9, col. 4, Legislative a.s.sembly:

"Mr. Isaacs:... He hoped this `barracking' would not be continued." [Members had been interrupting him.]

1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Sept. 9, p. 1, col. 6:

"He noticed with pleasure the decrease of disagreeable barracking by spectators at matches during last season.

Good-humoured badinage had prevailed, but the spectators had been very well conducted."

Barracker, n. one who barracks (q.v.).

1893. `The Age,' June 27, p. 6, col. 6:

"His worship remarked that the `barracking' that was carried on at football matches was a mean and contemptible system, and was getting worse and worse every day. Actually people were afraid to go to them on account of the conduct of the crowd of `barrackers.' It took all the interest out of the game to see young men acting like a gang of larrikins."

1894. `"The Argus,' Nov. 29, p. 4, col. 9:

"The `most unkindest cut of all' was that the Premier, who was Mr. Rogers's princ.i.p.al barracker during the elections, turned his back upon the prophet and did not deign to discuss his plan."

Barracks, n. a building on a station with rooms for bachelors.

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 100

"A roomy, roughly-finished building known as the `barracks.'

... . Three of the numerous bedrooms were tenanted by young men, ... neophytes, who were gradually a.s.similating the love of Bush-land."

Barracouta, or Barracoota, n. The name, under its original spelling of Barracuda, was coined in the Spanish West Indies, and first applied there to a large voracious fish, Sphyraena pecuda, family Sphyraenidae. In Australia and New Zealand it is applied to a smaller edible fish, Thyrsites atun, Cuv. and Val., family Trichiuridae, called Snook (q.v.) at the Cape of Good Hope. It is found from the Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand.

1845. `Voyage to Port Philip,' p. 40:

"We hook the barracuda fish."

1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fishes of New South Wales,'

p. 69:

"Sphyrenidae. The first family is the barracudas, or sea-pike." [Footnote]: "This name is no doubt the same as Barracouta and is of Spanish origin. The application of it to Thyrsites atun in the Southern seas was founded on some fancied resemblance to the West Indian fish, which originally bore the name, though of course they are entirely different."

(2) The word is used as a nickname for an inhabitant of Hobart; compare Cornstalk.

Barramunda, n. a fish, i.q. Burramundi (q.v.).

Basket-Fence, n. Local name for a stake-hedge.

See quotation.

1872. G. S. Baden-Powell, `New Homes for the Old Country,' p. 208:

"For sheep, too, is made the `basket fence.' Stakes are driven in, and their pliant `stuff' interwoven, as in a stake hedge in England."

b.a.s.t.a.r.d Dory and John Dory (q.v.), spelt also Dorey, n. an Australian fish, Cyttus australis, family Cyttidae; the Australian representative of Zeus faber, the European "John Dory," and its close relative, is called b.a.s.t.a.r.d Dorey in New Zealand, and also Boar-fish (q.v.).

1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 387:

"Histiopterus... .The species figured attains to a length of twenty inches, and is esteemed as food. It is known at Melbourne by the names of `Boar-fish' or `b.a.s.t.a.r.d Dorey'

(fig.), Histiopterus recurvirostris."

b.a.s.t.a.r.d Trumpeter, n. a fish. See Morwong, Paper-fish, and Trumpeter. In Sydney it is Latris ciliaris, Forst., which is called Moki in New Zealand; in Victoria and Tasmania, L. forsteri, Casteln.

1883. `Royal Commission on the Fisheries of Tasmania,' p. 35:

"The b.a.s.t.a.r.d trumpeter (Latris Forsteri)... .Scarcely inferior to the real trumpeter, and superior to it in abundance all the year round, comes the b.a.s.t.a.r.d trumpeter... This fish has. .h.i.therto been confounded with Latris ciliaris (Forst.); but, although the latter species has been reported as existing in Tasmanian waters, it is most probably a mistake: for the two varieties (the red and the white), found in such abundance here, have the general characters as shown above... They must be referred to the Latris Forsteri of Count Castelnau, which appears to be the b.a.s.t.a.r.d trumpeter of Victorian waters."

Bat-fish, n. The name in England is given to a fish of the family Maltheidae. It is also applied to the Flying Gurnard of the Atlantic and to the Californian Sting-ray. In Australia, and chiefly in New South Wales, it is applied to Psettus argenteus, Linn., family Carangidae, or Horse Mackerels. Guenther says that the "Sea Bats," which belong to the closely allied genus Platax, are called so from the extraordinary length of some portion of their dorsal and a.n.a.l fins and of their ventrals.

Bathurst Bur, n. Explained in quotation.

1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 261:

"The Bathurst bur (Xanthium spinosuzn), a plant with long triple spines like the barbary, and burs which are ruinous to the wool of the sheep--otherwise, itself very like a chenopodium, or good-fat-hen."

Bats-wing-coral, n. the Australian wood Erythrina vespertilio, Bentham, N.O. Leguminosae.

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 426:

"Batswing Coral... .The wood is soft, and used by the aborigines for making their `heilamans,' or shields. It is exceedingly light and spongy, and of the greatest difficulty to work up to get anything like a surface for polishing."

Bauera, n. a shrub, Bauera rubioides, Andr., N.O. Saxifrageae, the Scrub Vine, or Native Rose; commonly called in Tasmania "Bauera,"and celebrated for forming impenetrable thickets in conjunction with "cutting gra.s.s," Cladium psittacorum, Labill.

1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 70: