Austral English. Edward Ellis Morris

Austral English

<hw>Bull-dog Shark</hw>, i.q. Bull-head (1) (q.v.).

<hw>Bull-head</hw>, n. The name is applied to many fishes of different families in various parts of the world, none of which are the same as the following two. (1) A shark of Tasmania and South Australia of small size and harmless, with teeth formed for crushing shells, Heterodontus phillipi , Lacep., family Cestraciontidae; also called the Bull-dog Shark, and in Sydney, where it is common, the Port-Jackson Shark : the aboriginal name was Tabbigan. (2) A freshwater fish of New Zealand, Eleotris gobioides, Cuv.and Val., family Gobiidae. See Bighead.

<hw>Bulln-Bulln</hw>, n. an aboriginal name for the Lyre-bird (q.v.). This native name is imitative. The most southerly county in Victoria is called Buln-Buln; it is the haunt of the Lyre-bird.

1857. D. Bunce, `Travels with Leichhardt in Australia,' p. 70:

"We afterwards learned that this was the work of the Bullen Bullen, or Lyre-bird, in its search for large worms, its favourite food."

1871. `The Athenaeum,' May 27, p. 660:

"The Gipps Land and Murray districts have been divided into the following counties: … Buln Buln (name of Lyre-bird)."

<hw>Bull-Oak</hw>, n. See Oak.

<hw>Bullocky</hw>, n. and adj. a bullockdriver." In the bush all the heavy hauling is done with bullock-drays. It is quite a common sight up the country to see teams of a dozen and upwards." (B. and L.)

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xii. p. 121:

"By George, Jack, you're a regular bullocky boy."

<hw>Bull-puncher</hw>, or <hw>Bullock-puncher</hw>, n. slang for a bullockdriver. According to Barrere and Leland's `Slang Dictionary,' the word has a somewhat different meaning in America, where it means a drover. See Punch.

1872. C. N. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 49:

"The `bull-puncher,' as bullock-drivers are familiarly called."

1873. J. Mathew, song `Hawking,' in `Queenslander,' Oct. 4:

"The stockmen and the bushmen and the shepherds leave the station,

And the hardy bullock-punchers throw aside their occupation."

1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 143:

"These teams would comprise from five to six pairs of bullocks each, and were driven by a man euphoniously termed a `bull-puncher.' Armed with a six-foot thong, fastened to a supple stick seven feet long. … "

<hw>Bull-rout</hw>, n. a fish of New South Wales, Centropogon robustus, Guenth., family Scorpaenidae.

1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' p. 48:

"It emits a loud and harsh grunting noise when it is caught. … The fisherman knows what he has got by the noise before he brings his fish to the surface. … When out of the water the noise of the bull-rout is loudest, and it spreads its gills and fins a little, so as to appear very formidable. … The blacks held it in great dread, and the name of bull-rout may possibly be a corruption of some native word."

<hw>Bull's-eye</hw>, n. a fish of New South Wales, Priacanthus macracanthus, Cuv.and Val. Priacanthus, says Guenther, is a percoid fish with short snout, lower jaw and chin prominent, and small rough scales all over them and the body generally. The eye large, and the colour red, pink, or silvery.

1884. E. P. Ramsay, `Fisheries Exhibition Literature,' vol. v. p. 311:

"Another good table-fish is the `bull's-eye,' a beautiful salmon-red fish with small scales. … At times it enters the harbours in considerable numbers; but the supply is irregular."

<hw>Bulls-wool</hw>, n. colloquial name for the inner portion of the covering of the Stringybark-tree (q.v.). This is a dry finely fibrous substance, easily disintegrated by rubbing between the hands. It forms a valuable tinder for kindling a fire in the bush, and is largely employed for that purpose. It is not unlike the matted hair of a bull, and is reddish in colour, hence perhaps this nickname, which is common in the Tasmanian bush.

<hw>Bully</hw>, n. a Tasmanian fish, Blennius tasmanianus, Richards., family Blennidae.

<hw>Bulrush</hw>, n. See Wonga and Raupo.

<hw>Bung, to go</hw>, v. to fail, to become bankrupt. This phrase of English school-boy slang, meaning to go off with an explosion, to go to smash (also according to Barrere and Leland still in use among American thieves), is in very frequent use in Australia. In Melbourne in the times that followed the collapse of the land-boom it was a common expression to say that Mr. So-and-so had "gone bung," sc. filed his schedule or made a composition with creditors; or that an institution had "gone bung," sc. closed its doors, collapsed. In parts of Australia, in New South Wales and Queensland, the word "bung" is an aboriginal word meaning "dead," and even though the slang word be of English origin, its frequency of use in Australia may be due to the existence of the aboriginal word, which forms the last syllable in Billabong (q.v.), and in the aboriginal word milbung blind, literally, eye-dead.

(a) The aboriginal word.

1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 430:

"A place called Umpie Bung, or the dead houses."

[It is now a suburb of Brisbane, Humpy-bong.]

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 175 [in Blacks' pigeon English]:

"Missis bail bong, ony cawbawn prighten. (Missis not dead, only dreadfully frightened.)"

1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 73:

"But just before you hands 'im [the horse] over and gets the money, he goes bong on you" (i.e. he dies).

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p: 142:

"Their [the blacks'] ordinary creed is very simple. `Directly me bung (die) me jump up white feller,' and this seems to be the height of their ambition."

1895. `The Age,' Dec. 21, p. 13, col. 6:

"`Then soon go bong, mummy,' said Ning, solemnly.

`Die,' corrected Clare. You mustn't talk blacks' language.'

`Suppose you go bong,' pursued Ning reflectively, `then you go to Heaven.'"

(b) The slang word.

1885. `Australian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 40:

"He was importuned to desist, as his musical talent had `gone bung,' probably from over-indulgence in confectionery."

1893. `The Argus,' April 15 (by Oriel), p. 13, col. 2:

"Still change is humanity's lot. It is but the space of a day

Till cold is the damask cheek, and silent the eloquent tongue,

All flesh is grass, says the preacher, like grass it is withered

away,

And we gaze on a bank in the evening, and lo, in the morn

'tis bung."

1893. Professor Gosman, `The Argus,' April 24, p. 7, col. 4:

"Banks might fail, but the treasures of thought could never go `bung.'"

1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), April 25, p. 2, col. 4:

"Perhaps

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