Austral English Part 146

Skeat's warning must be remembered--"As a rule, derivations which require a story to be told turn out to be false."

(2) That the word is thieves' English, promoted like swag, plant, lift, etc., into ordinary Australian English. Warders testify that for a number of years before the word appeared in print, it was used among criminals in gaol as two separate words, viz.--leary ('cute, fly, knowing), and kinchen (youngster),--`leary kinchen ,'--shortened commonly into `leary kin' and `leary kid.' Australian warders and constables are Irish, almost to a man. Their p.r.o.nunciation of `leary kin' would be very nearly `lairy kin,' which becomes the single word larrikin. (See quotation, 1871.) It is possible that Sergeant Dalton used this expression and was misunderstood by the reporter.

(3) The word has been derived from the French larron (a thief), which is from the Latin latronem (a robber).

This became in English larry, to which the English diminutive, kin, was added; although this etymology is always derided in Melbourne.

1870. `The Daily Telegraph' (Melbourne), Feb. 7, p. 2, col. 3:

"We shall perhaps begin to think of it in earnest, when we have insisted upon having wholesome and properly baked bread, or a better supply of fish, and when we have put down the `roughs' and `larrikins.'"

1870. `The Age,' Feb. 8, p. 3, col. 1:

"In sentencing a gang of `larrikins' who had been the terror of Little Bourke-street and its neighbourhood for several hours on Sat.u.r.day night, Mr. Call remarked..."

1870. `The Herald,' April 4, p.3, col. 2:

"... three larikins who had behaved in a very disorderly manner in Little Latrobe-street, having broken the door of a house and threatened to knock out the eye of one of the inmates."

1870. Marcus Clarke, `Goody Two Shoes,' p. 26:

"He's a lively little larrikin lad, and his name is Little Boy Blue."

1871. `The Argus,' Sept. 19, p.5, col. 4:

"In San Francisco, the vagabond juveniles who steal, smash windows, and make themselves generally obnoxious to the respectable inhabitants, instead of being termed `larrikins,'

as in Victoria, are denominated `hoodleums.' The name is more musical than the one in vogue here, and probably equally as descriptive, as its origin appears to be just as obscure as that of the word `larrikin.' This word, before it got into print, was confined to the Irish policemen, who generally p.r.o.nounced it `lerrikan,' and it has been suggested that the term is of Hibernian origin, and should be spelt lerrichaun.'"

1871. Sir George Stephen, Q.C., `Larrikinism,' a Lecture reported in `Prahran Telegraph,' Sept. 23, p. 3, col. 1:

What is Larrikinism? It is a modern word of which I can only guess the derivation, ... nor can I find any among the erudite professors of slang who adorn our modern literature who can a.s.sist me. Some give our police the credit of coining it from the `larking' of our school boys, but I am inclined to think that the word is of Greek origin--Laros, a cormorant--though immediately derived from the French `larron' which signifies a thief or rogue. If I am right, then larrikin is the natural diminutive form in English phraseology for a small or juvenile thief... . This however is, I must acknowledge, too severe a construction of the term, even if the derivation is correct; for I was myself, I frankly confess it, an unquestionable larrikin between 60 and 70 years ago... . Larrikinism is not thieving, though a road that often leads to it... . Is it a love of mischief for mischief's sake? This is the theory of the papers, and is certainly a nearer approach to the true solution."

1871. `Figaro,' in `Prahran Telegraph,' Sept. 30, p. 7, col. 3:

"A local contemporary has ... done his `level best' to help me out of my `difficulty' with respect to the word Larrikin.

He suggests that lerrichan should read leprichaun , a mischievous sprite, according to Irish tradition... .

We think we may with more safety and less difficulty trace the word to the stereotype [sic] reply of the police to the magisterial question--`What was he doing when you apprehended him?' `Oh! larriking (larking) about, yer Wurtchip.'"

1872. J. S. Elkington, `Tenth Report of Education, Victoria,' dated Feb. 14:

"My inquiries into the origin and habits of that troublesome parasite the larrikin (if I may adopt Constable Dalton's term) do not make me sanguine that compulsory primary instruction can do much for him, unless indirectly."

1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), May 15, p. 21, col. 3:

"On Sunday night an unfortunate Chinaman was so severely injured by the Richmond larrikins that his life was endangered."

1875. David Blair, in `Notes and Queries,' July 24, p. 66:

"Bedouins, Street Arabs, Juvenile Roughs in London; Gamins in Paris; Bowery Boys in New York; Hoodlums to San Francisco; Larrikins in Melbourne. This last phrase is an Irish constable's broad p.r.o.nunciation of `larking' applied to the nightly street performances of these young scamps, here as elsewhere, a real social pestilence."

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 338:

"There is not a spare piece of ground fit for a pitch anywhere round Melbourne that is not covered with `larrikins' from six years old upwards."

1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 159:

"It has become the name for that cla.s.s of roving vicious young men who prowl about public-houses and make night hideous in some of the low parts of our cities. There is now the bush `larrikin' as well as the town `larrikin,' and it would be difficult sometimes to say which is the worse. Bush `larrikins' have gone on to be bushrangers."

1890. `The Argus,' May 26, p. 6, col. 7:

"He was set upon by a gang of larrikins, who tried to rescue the prisoner."

1891. `Harper s Magazine,' July, p. 215, col. 2:

"The Melbourne `larrikin' has differentiated himself from the London `rough,' and in due season a term had to be developed to denote the differentiation."

1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 12, p. 13, col. 2:

"Robert Louis Stevenson, in a recent novel, `The Wrecker,'

makes the unaccountable mistake of confounding the unemployed Domain loafer with the larrikin. This only shows that Mr.

Stevenson during his brief visits to Sydney acquired but a superficial knowledge of the underlying currents of our social life."

1896. J. St. V. Welch, in `Australasian Insurance and Banking Record,' May 19, p. 376:

"Whence comes the larrikin? that pest of these so-called over-educated colonies; the young loafer of from sixteen to eight-and-twenty. Who does not know him, with his weedy, contracted figure; his dissipated pimply face; his greasy forelock brushed flat and low over his forehead; his too small jacket; his tight-cut trousers; his high-heeled boots; his arms--with out-turned elbows--swinging across his stomach as he hurries along to join his `push,' as he calls the pack in which he hunts the solitary citizen---a pack more to be dreaded on a dark night than any pack of wolves--and his name in Sydney is legion, and in many cases he is a full-fledged voter."

1896. W. H. Whelan, in `The Argus,' Jan. 7, p. 6, col. 3:

"Being clerk of the City Court, I know that the word originated in the very Irish and amusing way in which the then well-known Sergeant Dalton p.r.o.nounced the word larking in respect to the conduct of `Tommy the Nut,' a rowdy of the period, and others of both s.e.xes in Stephen (now Exhibition) street.

"Your representative at the Court, the witty and clever `Billy'

O'Hea, who, alas! died too early, took advantage of the appropriate sound of the word to apply it to rowdyism in general, and, next time Dalton repeated the phrase, changed the word from verb to noun, where it still remains, anything to the contrary notwithstanding. I speak of what I do know, for O'Hea drew my attention to the matter at the time, and, if I mistake not, a reference to your files would show that it was first in the `Argus' the word appeared in print."

("We can fully confirm Mr. Whelan's account of the origin of the word `larrikin.'"--Ed. `Argus.')

[But see quotation from `Argus,' 1871.]

Larrikin, adj.

1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 522:

"Marks the young criminals as heroes in the eyes not only of the ostensible larrikin element ..."

Larrikinalian, adj. (Not common.)

1893. `Evening Standard,' July 5, p. 4, col. 4 (Leading Article):

"In the larrikinalian din which prevailed from start to finish ..."

Larrikiness, n. a female larrikin.