Austral English. Edward Ellis Morris

Austral English - Edward Ellis Morris


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Impressions.

      1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 71:

      "The coach-whip is a small bird about the size of a sparrow, found near rivers. It derives its name from its note, a slow, clear whistle, concluded by a sharp jerking noise like the crack of a whip."

      1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 76:

      "The whip-bird, whose sharp wiry notes, even, are far more agreeable than the barking of dogs and the swearing of diggers."

      1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 24:

      "That is the coach-whip bird. There again.

       Whew-ew-ew-ew-whit. How sharply the last note sounds."

      1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. vi. p. 54:

      "The sharp st—wt of the whip-bird … echoed through the gorge."

      1888. James Thomas, `May o' the South,' `Australian Poets 1788–1888' (ed. Sladen), p. 552:

      "Merrily the wagtail now

       Chatters on the ti-tree bough,

       While the crested coachman bird

       `Midst the underwood is heard."

      <hw>Coast</hw>, <i>v</i>. to loaf about from station to station.

      1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' xxv. 295:

      "I ain't like you, Towney, able to coast about without a job of work from shearin' to shearin'."

      <hw>Coaster</hw>, <i>n</i>. a loafer, a <i>Sundowner</i> (q.v.).

      1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' viii. 75:

      "A voluble, good-for-nothing, loafing impostor, a regular `coaster.'"

      <hw>Cobb</hw>, <i>n</i>. sometimes used as equivalent to a coach. "I am going by Cobb." The word is still used, though no Mr. Cobb has been connected with Australian coaches for many years. See quotation.

      1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 184:

      "Mr. Cobb was an American, and has returned long ago to his native country. He started a line of conveyances from Melbourne to Castlemaine some time after the gold discoveries. Mr. Cobb had spirit to buy good horses, to get first-class American coaches, to employ good Yankee whips, and in a couple of years or so he had been so extensively patronised that he sold out, and retired with a moderate fortune." [But the Coaching Company retained … the style of Cobb & Co.]

      1879 (about). `Queensland Bush Song':

      "Hurrah for the Roma Railway!

       Hurrah for Cobb and Co.!

       Hurrah, hurrah for a good fat horse

       To carry me Westward Ho!"

      <hw>Cobbler</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) The last sheep, an Australian shearing term. (2) Another name for the fish called the <i>Fortescue</i> (q.v.)

      1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Dec. 23, p. 6, col. 1:

      "Every one might not know what a `cobbler' is. It is the last sheep in a catching pen, and consequently a bad one to shear, as the easy ones are picked first. The cobbler must be taken out before `Sheep-ho' will fill up again. In the harvest field English rustics used to say, when picking up the last sheaf, `This is what the cobbler threw at his wife.' `What?' `The last,' with that lusty laugh, which, though it might betray `a vacant mind,' comes from a very healthy organism."

      <hw>Cobblers-Awl</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name. The word is a provincial English name for the <i>Avocet</i>. In Tasmania, the name is applied to a <i>Spine-Bill</i> (q.v.) from the shape of its beak.

      1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 61:

      "<i>Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris</i>, Lath., Slender-billed Spine-bill. <i>Cobbler's Awl</i>, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land. <i>Spine-bill</i>, Colonists of New South Wales."

      <hw>Cobbler's Pegs</hw>, name given to a tall erect annual weed, <i>Erigeron linifolius</i>, Willd., <i>N.O. Compositae</i> and to <i>Bidens pilosus</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>.

      <hw>Cobbra</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal word for head, skull. [<i>Kabura</i> or <i>Kobbera</i>, with such variations as Kobra, Kobbera, Kappara, Kopul, from Malay Kapala, head: one of the words on the East Coast manifestly of Malay origin.—J. Mathew. Much used in pigeon converse with blacks. `Goodway cobra tree' = `Tree very tall.'] Collins, `Port Jackson Vocabulary,' 1798 (p. 611), gives `Kabura, ca-ber-ra.' Mount Cobberas in East Gippsland has its name from huge head-like masses of rock which rise from the summit.

      1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 31:

      "The black fellow who lives in the bush bestows but small attention on his cobra, as the head is usually called in the pigeon-English which they employ."

      1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xiii. p. 134:

      "I should be cock-sure that having an empty cobbra, as the blacks say, was on the main track that led to the grog-camp."

      <hw>Cock-a-bully</hw>, <i>n</i>. a popular name for the New Zealand fish <i>Galaxias fasciatus</i>, Gray, a corruption of its Maori name <i>Kokopu</i> (q.v.).

      1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 3:

      "During my stay in New Zealand my little girl caught a fish rather larger than an English minnow. Her young companions called it a `cock-a bully.' It was pretty obvious to scent a corruption of a Maori word, for, mark you, cock-a-bully has no meaning. It looks as if it were English and full of meaning. Reflect an instant and it has none. The Maori name for the fish is `kokopu'"

      <hw>Cockatiel</hw>, <hw>—eel</hw>, <i>n</i>. an arbitrary diminutive of the word Cockatoo, and used as another name for the Cockatoo-Parrakeet, <i>Calopsitta novae-hollandiae</i>, and generally for any Parrakeet of the genus <i>Calopsitta</i>. (`O.E.D.')

      <hw>Cockatoo</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Bird-name. The word is Malay, <i>Kakatua</i>. (`O.E.D.') The varieties are—

      Banksian Cockatoo—

       <i>Calyptorhynchus banksii</i>, Lath.

      Bare-eyed C.—

       <i>Cacatua gymnopis</i>, Sclater.

      Black C.—

       <i>Calyptorhynchus funereus</i>, Shaw.

      Blood-stained C.—

       <i>Cacatua sanguinea</i>, Gould.

      Dampier's C.—

       <i>Licmetis pastinator</i>, Gould.

      Gang-gang C.— <i>Callocephalon galeatum</i>, Lath. [See

       <i>Gang-gang</i>.]

      Glossy C.—

       <i>Calyptorhynchus viridis</i>, Vieill.

      Long-billed C.—

       <i>Licmetis nasicus</i>, Temm. [See <i>Corella</i>.]

      Palm C.—

       <i>Microglossus aterrimus</i>, Gmel.

      Pink C.—

       <i>Cacatua leadbeateri</i>, V. & H. (Leadbeater, q.v.).

      Red-tailed C.—

       <i>Calyptorhynchus stellatus</i>, Wagl.

      Rose-breasted C.— <i>Cacatua roseicapilla</i>, Vieill. [See

       <i>Galah</i>.


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