Austral English Part 5

1847. `Condensed Account of Sturt's Exploration in the Interior of Australia--Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,' p. 87:

"Captain Sturt proposed sending in advance to ascertain the state of the Ana branch of the Darling, discovered by Mr. Eyre on a recent expedition to the North."

No fewer than six times on two pages is the word anabranch printed as two separate words, and as if Ana were a proper name. In the Index volume it appears "Ana, a branch of the Darling."

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 35:

"The river itself divided into anabranches which ... made the whole valley a maze of channels."

1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 298:

"What the Major calls, after the learned nomenclature of Colonel Jackson, in the `Journal of the Geographical Society,'

anabranches, but which the natives call billibongs, channels coming out of a stream and returning into it again."

1871. `The Athenaeum,' May 27, p. 660 (' O.E.D.'):

"The Loddon district is called the County of Gunbower, which means, it is said, an ana branch [sic]."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' p. 48:

"A plain bordering an ana-branch sufficient for water."

Anchorwing, n. a bird-name, Falco melanogenys, Gould. The Black-cheeked Falcon, so called because of the resemblance of the wings outspread in flight to the flukes of an anchor.

Anguillaria, n. one of the vernacular names used for the common Australian wild flower, Anguillaraa australis, R. Br., Wurmbsea dioica, F. v. M., N.O. Liliaceae. The name Anguillarea is from the administrator of the Botanic Gardens of Padua, three centuries ago. There are three Australian forms, distinguished by Robert Brown as species. The flower is very common in the meadows in early spring, and is therefore called the Native Snow Drop. In Tasmania it is called Nancy.

1835.Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' 67:

"Spotted Anguillaria. Nancy. The little lively white flower with blue spots in the centre, about 2 inches high, that everywhere enlivens our gra.s.sy hills in spring, resembling the Star of Bethlehem."

1878. W. R. Guilfoyle, `Australian Botany,' p. 83:

"Native Snowdrop. Anguillaria Australis. The earliest of all our indigenous spring-flowering plants... . In early spring our fields are white with the flowers of this pretty little bulbous-rooted plant."

Ant-eater, n.

(1) i.q. Ant-eating-Porcupine. See Echidna.

(2) The Banded Ant-eater (q.v.).

Ant-eater, Banded. See Banded Ant-eater.

Antechinornys, n. scientific name for the genus with the one species of Long legged Pouched-Mouse (q.v.). (Grk. 'anti, opposed to, 'echivos, hedgehog, and mus, mouse, sc. a mouse different to the hedgehog.) It is a jumping animal exclusively insectivorous.

Antipodes, n. properly a Greek word, the plural of 'antipous, lit. "having feet opposed." The ancients, however, had no knowledge of the southern hemisphere.

Under the word perioikos, Liddell and Scott explain that 'antipodes meant "those who were in opposite parallels and meridians." The word Antipodes was adopted into the Latin language, and occurs in two of the Fathers, Lactantius and Augustine. By the mediaeval church to believe in the antipodes was regarded as heresy. `O.E.D.' quotes two examples of the early use of the word in English.

1398. `Trevisa Barth. De P. R.,' xv. lii. (1495), p. 506:

"Yonde in Ethiopia ben the Antipodes, men that have theyr fete ayenst our fete."

1556. `Recorde Cast. Knowl.,' 93:

"People ... called of the Greeks and Latines also 'antipodes, Antipodes, as you might say Counterfooted, or Counterpasers."

Shakspeare uses the word in five places, but, though he knew that this "pendent world" was spherical, his Antipodes were not Australasian. In three places he means only the fact that it is day in the Eastern hemisphere when it is night in England.

`Midsummer Night's Dream,' III. ii. 55:

"I'll believe as soon This whole earth may be bored, and that the moon May thro' the centre creep and so displease His brother's noontide with the Antipodes."

`Merchant of Venice,' V. 127:

"We should hold day with the Antipodes If you would walk in absence of the sun."

`Richard II.,' III. ii. 49:

"Who all this while hath revell'd in the night, Whilst we were wandering with the Antipodes."

In `Henry VI.,' part 3, I. iv. 135, the word more clearly designates the East:

"Thou art as opposite to every good As the Antipodes are unto us, Or as the South to the Septentrion." [sc. the North.]

But more precise geographical indications are given in `Much Ado,' II. i. 273, where Bened.i.c.k is so anxious to avoid Beatrice that he says--

"I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John's foot; fetch you a hair of the great Kam's beard; do you any emba.s.sage to the Pygmies rather than hold three words conference with this harpy."

Now the Pygmies lived on the Upper Nile, near Khartoum, Prester John in India, and the great Kam (Khan) in Tartary.

The word Antipodes in modern use is applied rather to places than to people. Geographically, the word means a place exactly opposite on the surface of the globe, as Antipodes Island (Eastward of New Zealand), which is very near the opposite end of the diameter of the globe pa.s.sing through London. But the word is often used in a wider sense, and the whole of Australasia is regarded as the Antipodes of Great Britain.

The question is often asked whether there is any singular to the word Antipodes, and `O.E.D.' shows that antipode is still used in the sense of the exact opposite of a person. Antipod is also used, especially playfully. The adjectives used are Antipodal and Antipodean.

1640. Richard Brome [t.i.tle]:

"The Antipodes; comedy in verse." [Acted in 1638, first printed 4t0. 1640.]

Ant-orchis, n. an Australian and Tasmanian orchid, Chiloglottis gunnii, Lind.

Apple and Apple-tree, n. and adj. The names are applied to various indigenous trees, in some cases from a supposed resemblance to the English fruit, in others to the foliage of the English tree. The varieties are--

Black or Brush Apple-- Achras australis, R. Br.

Emu A.-- Owenia acidula, F. v. M.; called also Native Nectarine and Native Quince.

Petalostigma quadriloculare, F. v. M.; called also Crab-tree, Native Quince, Quinine-tree (q.v.)

Kangaroo A.-- See Kangaroo Apple.

Mooley A. (West N.S.W. name)-- Owenia acidula, F. v. M.

Mulga A.-- The Galls of Acacia aneura, F. v. M.