O.E.D. EXTRA VOLUME

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 47, 24 February 1934, Page 19

O.E.D. EXTRA VOLUME

« AUSTRALIAN WORDS

AND ONE FROM NEW ZEALAND

A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography by W. A. Graigio and C. T. Onions. 13 x 10, 7 xxviii + 963, pp. Oxford: At tho v" GHarendon Press. London: Milford. Published price, ,in half-morocco, £6l)is,' ' .',- fith Notice.],. ,' , '.It'surprised me to find^'mana" infcluded among the ne,w~ words in the Supplementary Volume of the big dictionary, and there treated as of exclusively Maori origin. It is true that the part of the dictionary covering "M — Mandragora" appeared in,1904, which Is thirty years ago, and,that: my expectation of finding the word in the index: of Taylor's "Primitive Culture" (1871)* has been disappointed. . I find it, however, in Frazer, "The Golden Bqugh," second edition, 1900, I, 65, in a t passage qnoted from Codrington, "The Melanesians" (1891), pp. 191, etc,.

The article on "mana" in the Oxford Dictionary's extra volume', omitting the last two quotations, is as follows,: — i

Mana. [Maori] Power in general, authority, prestige; spec, supernatural or magical power or •influence.

Now, freq. used by writeis on anthropology or primitive religion. 1855 R. Taylor, "TelkaaMaui".279. The Natives . . . fee! ... that with the land, their "mana" ov 'power has gone likewise. 1877 R. H. Codrington, "Let." in Max Muejler, "Hibbert Lecture" (1878) 51. There-is a belief; m a force'altogether distinct from physical power, which acts in all kinds o£ for' good •;■ and evil, and which it is 6£ the greatest advantage to possess or control. This is Mana.' 1909 ''Athenaeum" 27 Feb. 259/1 Mr. Marett . . . read before that [International] Congress [of Religions] a paper on the conception of "mana."

Turning to E, E. Morris's excellent' "Austral English." (1898) to see what he has to say about "mana," I am pleased to-se© the compliment m his mtroduation to v<'the noblest monument of 3|&gljsh. -scholarship, the Kew English on Historical Principles, '\ ■which was then in« its fourth volume, and his just complaint about the name. The name "New* 1 will, he says, be unsuitable long before the Dictionaiy is out of date,: Its light name is the "Oxford English Dic"tionaij'< (OED). (The change 'to this tfiglit name m the reissuo was noted a fortnight ago.) Moras, whose book is included in the OED.'s bibliography and tieely,cited, has an even earlier authority than the Bey E. Taylor gn the meaning ,of "njaaa','" namely Dieffonbach, whose "Travels in !New Zealand" appeared in 1843. The las); of Morns's quotations is of special interest — 1896 "Xew Zealand. Herald/ Tebiuarj 14 [Leading Aiticle] —The word "mana," poiyei«> or''influence, m^iy be ,said fo-be classical?^ thefe w?idMeai'nccffecufesiins about its precise meaning in the «arly dispatches and State papeis Tt may be said that misunderstanding about what "mana." meant caused the war in Taranaki., . __ ( * ♦ # The etymology of tho \erb "barrack," which was for a long time in" doubt, appears now to bo definitely set tied,, Morris derives it from "borak," on which ho wiites as follows — Bqfak, n Aboriginal -nord of New1 feouth Wales, meaning banter, chaff, fun at another's expense ... Prior to 1870 the.' word was much in use on the 'stations in I 3s ew. South Wales. Abou^ 1870-the Vie tonan farmers' sons took shearing 1 there, and bronght back the word with them. It was subsequently altcicd to, 'barrack." ' , '

But):while accepting this • derivation'o£ "barrack." as the more probable, Morris speaks without disrespect of the thedry. which derives it from tho Irish pronunciation of "Bark" as (according to the usually accepted view) "Larrikin" from '< larking." '!* ' * Vi, ~ The O.E.D. now accepts Morris's derivation;of "barrack?J without mentioning any alternative. Its' definition, with the first two quotations, is as fol lowsi—

cß.?£ raC£ ,T- orlg* Australian, alteration of "Borak, q.v.J , i v "E° 'shout'jodutar or, sarcastic* re t marks oOvords of advice as partisans foj ZnPVt* i X fcCMn \ e.aP' a person, or side collfettirely, engaged in a coiitest~(eaid of I a section ofnhe crowd oE spectators, orur AustiAban). Also transf. b tians. To I shout in this way at (a player). , ,1830 larmer, "Slanjt," Barracking (Aus-1 trahan) banter, chaff. 1830 "Melbourne 1 Poach," 14 Auff 106/3 To use a football i phrase, they all,to a man "banacL" for1 the British Lion. ,

» * Thre(£ points may be noted in regard to tho T origin and development of this WH.—That just as "borak" implied hostility? so, after tho change to "barrack,''- "the . sense offering was" *£\\ :M(*n' i' says > Vcaiher 'than tn^tr, oi : supporting"; that the ougihal^appUcationi of tho toim was nol? t to cricket bub to football; and that though, as-the OED. says, ''ongmallv Australian," the term has now a general currency. I n view of the tact that it is frho-hostilo associations of barracking that have mado the deejlest impiession on British sportsmen and readers, it is not surprising that some of them labour under the mistake that tho senso of jeering which "barrack" inherited from "borak" is still its only scnte or an essential part of it. , * 1 * ♦ - -• # Of, all the mistakes that my constant pse and occasional study have revealed in the almost infallible "Concise Oxford Dictionary" nearly eveiy one-has pioved to be a mare', nest. Tho onlj tno that 7w , , VI 2 a* the reference for the phrase "scive tables," and the definition of the verb "banack" as "hoot, jeer at (players in cricket match, etc.)." In the definition above quoted the "Big ? xt? tA' Bet* the matter light by giv™l fl ? * Se"SeS Ma Pultane the Peasant 0110 nrst.—

:^^ad^^* tic: r-arks:-

.. The.mention of cricket reminds me to *eßt^ 6,9-E:D.'s Extra yolnme in this department. ; Teeter >>;,itself th« on^.a.dditioa;is:,the;'aUusive;:use of c ™M W. thei^njse^of - ".fair', play, hmoura^le/dcalingsVwithJopponeßts and £"g£v? ™0, apooial reference-to the Sfrtlf" » t0 Pl^ cricket "-and- '"not iffnn J quotations'ranging from 1900 to 1930, Under "Test" "Teft Test matches," "Test match" itself having been dealt-with' "in- the main work in 1919., "(Joogly" or "googlie" I!t ~''at^& l ;^chic& freaks from,the■ off. .thpjtgh. bowled with, apparent leg-break acSjon^?^.^he,e{ymologyvis.; unknown" and apparently unguossed, but the reference in the first quotation (1904, P.

F. Warner) to "those slow 'googlics,' as tho Australian papers call them," suggests that Australia may be tho home of the googly, though Bbsanquet is the bowler mentioned.

Thero is, of course, no room for doubt as to the origin of "body-line bowling," which is defined as

fast bowling delivered persistently on the leg side, first so teimed in Australia with inference to Test match encket in Jan., 1933 ("Times," 19 Jan., 12/6).

But it is astonishing that a term which appaiently was first recorded in England at the beginning of 1933 should be included in a dictionary of this size six weeks before tho year was out!.