Produced by Geoffrey Cowling

AUSTRAL ENGLISH

A DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN WORDS, PHRASES AND USAGES

with those Aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which havebecome incorporated in the language and the commoner scientificwords that have had their origin in Australasia

by Edward E. Morris M.A., Oxon.

Professor of English, French and German Languages and
Literatures in the University of Melbourne.

1898

INTRODUCTION

I. ORIGIN OF THE WORK
First undertaken to help O.E.D.
The Standard Dictionary

II. TITLE AND SCOPE OF THE BOOK
Not a Slang Dictionary

III. SOURCES OF NEW WORDS:—
      1. Altered English
      2. Words quite new to the language:—
         (a) Aboriginal Australian
         (b) Maori

IV. THE LAW OF HOBSON-JOBSON
Is Austral English a corruption?

V. CLASSIFICATION OF WORDS

VI. QUOTATIONS. THEIR PURPOSE

VII. BOOKS USED AS AUTHORITIES

VIII.SCIENTIFIC WORDS

IX. ASSISTANCE RECEIVED

X. ABBREVIATIONS:— 1. Of Scientific Names 2. General

I. ORIGIN OF THE WORK.

About a generation ago Mr. Matthew Arnold twitted our nationwith the fact that "the journeyman work of literature" was muchbetter done in France—the books of reference, the biographicaldictionaries, and the translations from the classics. He didnot especially mention dictionaries of the language, because hewas speaking in praise of academies, and, as far as France isconcerned, the great achievement in that line is Littre and notthe Academy's Dictionary. But the reproach has now been rolledaway—nous avons change tout cela—and in every branchto which Arnold alluded our journeyman work is quite equal toanything in France.

It is generally allowed that a vast improvement has taken placein translations, whether prose or verse. From quarter toquarter the Dictionary of National Biography continuesits stately progress. But the noblest monument of Englishscholarship is The New English Dictionary on HistoricalPrinciples, founded mainly on the materials collected bythe Philological Society, edited by Dr. James Murray, andpublished at the cost of the University of Oxford. The nameNew will, however, be unsuitable long before theDictionary is out of date. Its right name is the OxfordEnglish Dictionary (`O.E.D.'). That great dictionary isbuilt up out of quotations specially gathered for it fromEnglish books of all kinds and all periods; and Dr. Murrayseveral years ago invited assistance from this end of the worldfor words and uses of words peculiar to Australasia, or toparts of it. In answer to his call I began to collect; butinstances of words must be noted as one comes across them, andof course they do not occur in alphabetical order. The worktook time, and when my parcel of quotations had grown into aconsiderable heap, it occurred to me that the collection, if alittle further trouble were expended upon it, might first enjoyan independent existence. Various friends kindly contributedmore quotations: and this Book is the result.

In January 1892, having t

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