AUSTRALIA’S LANGUAGE

Evening Star, Issue 15064, 21 December 1912, Page 10

AUSTRALIA’S LANGUAGE

The London correspondent of tbs Sydney Sun writes ; We are getting on. riVc have a latwuao-e of our own At any rate, Messrs Macmillan have issued a new dictionary, and have considered it necessary to add after the customary rlascical and mythological appendix an Australasian section of 30 pages, which is devoted “ To. words, phrases, locutions, and usages peculiar u> English-speaking people in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.” Seme of them will he as interesting to Australians as they may be to English readers. For example, ‘‘back slanging” means “asking and obtaining food and lodgings at the houses of settlers in the back-blocks.” “Barrack” is “to jeer an opponent, to interrupt noisily, to make a disturbance.” “ Cadet,” a young man who works on a sheep farm to leam sheep farming. “Cbyak” is to obaff. “Cock-eyed Bob” is a thunderstorm. “Hatter.” the miner who works alone. “ Larrikin” is “a street urchin full of fun and mischief,” or “ a blackguard ” or “ a hooligan.” A “magpie” is “a large crow, the black-and-white plumage of which suggests the English magpie”; while '‘Perished” is “an adjective applied to wool which has been too much exposed to wind and rain,” and “ Wowser ” is “ one who pretends to be a great deal better than he really is.” As I said, this modem dictionary is not only instructive, but has a humor all its own.