Austral English. Edward Ellis Morris
(generally called <B>ambrit</B>), <i>n</i>. Mineral [from amber + ite, mineral formative, `O.E.D.'], a fossil resin found in masses amidst lignite coals in various parts of New Zealand. Some identify it with the resin of <i>Dammara australis</i>, generally called <i>Kauri gum</i> (q.v.).
1867. F. von Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 79:
"Although originating probably from a coniferous tree related to the Kauri pine, it nevertheless has been erroneously taken for Kauri gum."—[Footnote]: "It is sufficiently characterised to deserve a special name ; but it comes so near to real <i>amber</i> that it deserves the name of <i>Ambrite</i>."
[This is the earliest use of the word.]
<hw>Anabranch</hw>, <i>n</i>. a branch of a river which leaves it and enters it again. The word is not Australian, though it is generally so reckoned. It is not given in the `Century,' nor in the `Imperial,' nor in `Webster,' nor in the `Standard.' The `O.E.D.' treats <i>Ana</i> as an independent word, rightly explaining it as <i>anastomosing</i>, but its quotation from the `Athenaeum' (1871), on which it relies,is a misprint. For the origin and coinage of the word, see quotation 1834. See the aboriginal name <i>Billabong</i>.
1834. Col.Jackson, `Journal of Royal Geographical Society,' p. 79:
"Such branches of a river as after separation re-unite, I would term <i>anastomosing-branches</i>; or, if a word might be coined, <i>ana-branches</i>, and the islands they form, <i>branch-islands</i>. Thus, if we would say, `the river in this part of its course divides into several <i>ana-branches</i>,' we should immediately understand the subsequent re-union of the branches to the main trunk."
Col. Jackson was for a while Secretary and Editor of the Society's Journal. In Feb. 1847 he resigned that position, and in the journal of that year there is the following amusing ignorance of his proposed word—
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 <i>anabranch</i> printed as two separate words, and as if <i>Ana</i> 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."
<hw>Anchorwing</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name, <i>Falco melanogenys</i>, Gould. The Black-cheeked Falcon, so called because of the resemblance of the wings outspread in flight to the flukes of an anchor.
<hw>Anguillaria</hw>, <i>n</i>. one of the vernacular names used for the common Australian wild flower, <i>Anguillaraa australis</i>, R. Br., <i>Wurmbsea dioica</i>, F. v. M., N.O. <i>Liliaceae</i>. The name <i>Anguillarea</i> 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 <i>Native Snow Drop</i>. In Tasmania it is called <i>Nancy</i>.
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 grassy hills in spring, resembling the Star of Bethlehem."
1878. W. R. Guilfoyle, `Australian Botany,' p. 83:
"Native Snowdrop. <i>Anguillaria Australis</i>. 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."
<hw>Ant-eater</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) i.q. <i>Ant-eating-Porcupine</i>. See <i>Echidna</i>. (2) The <i>Banded Ant-eater</i> (q.v.).
<hw>Ant-eater, Banded</hw>. See <i>Banded Ant-eater</i>.
<hw>Antechinornys</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for the genus with the one species of <i>Long legged Pouched-Mouse</i> (q.v.). (Grk. <i>'anti</i>, opposed to, <i>'echivos</i>, hedgehog, and <i>mus</i>, mouse, sc. a mouse different to the hedgehog.) It is a jumping animal exclusively insectivorous.
<hw>Antipodes</hw>, <i>n</i>. properly a Greek word, the plural of <i>'antipous</i>, lit. "having feet opposed." The ancients, however, had no knowledge of the southern hemisphere. Under the word <i>perioikos</i>, Liddell and Scott explain that <i>'antipodes</i> meant "those who were in opposite parallels and meridians." The word <i>Antipodes</i> 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 <i>'antipodes</i>, <i>Antipodes</i>, 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." [<i>sc</i>. the North.]
But more precise geographical indications are given in `Much
Ado,' II. i. 273, where Benedick 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