Austral English Part 35

Brush-Turpentine, n. another name for the tree Syncarpia leptopetala, F. v. M., N.O. Myrtaceae, called also Myrtle (q.v.).

Bubrush, n. See Wonga and Raupo.

Buck, v. Used "intransitively of a horse, to leap vertically from the ground, drawing the feet together like a deer, and arching the back. Also transitively to buck off."

(`O.E.D.') Some say that this word is not Australian, but all the early quotations of buck and cognate words are connected with Australia. The word is now used freely in the United States; see quotation, 1882.

1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Four Years in Queensland,' p. 193:

"Having gained his seat by a nimble spring, I have seen a man (a Sydney native) so much at his ease, that while the horse has been `bucking a hurricane,' to use a colonial expression, the rider has been cutting up his tobacco and filling his pipe, while several feet in the air, nothing to front of him excepting a small lock of the animal's mane (the head being between its legs), and very little behind him, the stern being down; the horse either giving a turn to the air, or going forward every buck."

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 131:

"`Well,' said one, `that fellow went to market like a bird.'

`Yes,' echoed another, `Bucked a blessed hurricane.' `Buck a town down,' cried a third. `Never seed a horse strip himself quicker,' cried a fourth."

1882. Baillie-Grohman, `Camps in the Rockies,' ch. iv. p. 102 ('Standard'):

"There are two ways, I understand, of sitting a bucking horse ... one is `to follow the buck,' the other `to receive the buck.'"

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 55:

"The performance is quite peculiar to Australian horses, and no one who has not seen them at it would believe the rapid contortions of which they are capable. In bucking, a horse tucks his head right between his fore-legs, sometimes striking his jaw with his hind feet. The back meantime is arched like a boiled prawn's; and in this position the animal makes a series of tremendous bounds, sometimes forwards, sometimes sideways and backwards, keeping it up for several minutes at intervals of a few seconds."

Buck, n. See preceding verb.

1868. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 224:

"I never saw such bucks and jumps into the air as she [the mare] performed."

1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 206:

"For, mark me, he can sit a buck For hours and hours together; And never horse has had the luck To pitch him from the leather."

Bucker, Buck-jumper, n. a horse given to bucking or buck-jumping.

1853. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia in 1852 and 1853,' [Footnote] p. 143:

"A `bucker' is a vicious horse, to be found only in Australia."

1884. `Harper's Magazine,' July, No. 301, p. 1 (`O.E.D.'):

"If we should ... select a `bucker,' the probabilities are that we will come to grief."

1893. Haddon Chambers, `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian Life,'

p. 64:

"No buck jumper could shake him off."

1893. Ibid. p. 187:

"`Were you ever on a buck-jumper?' I was asked by a friend, shortly after my return from Australia."

Buck-jumping, Bucking, verbal nouns.

1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 43:

"At length it shook off all its holders, and made one of those extraordinary vaults that they call buck-jumping."

1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. 212:

"That same bucking is just what puzzles me utterly."

1859. Rev. J. D. Mereweather, `Diary of a Working Clergyman in Australia and Tasmania, kept during the years 1850-1853,'

p. 177:

"I believe that an inveterate buckjumper can be cured by slinging up one of the four legs, and lunging him about severely in heavy ground on the three legs. The action they must needs make use of on such an occasion somewhat resembles the action of bucking; and after some severe trials of that sort, they take a dislike to the whole style of thing. An Irishman on the Murrumbidgee is very clever at this schooling.

It is called here `turning a horse inside out.'"

1885. Forman (Dakota), item 26, May 6, 3 (`O.E.D.'):

"The majority of the horses there [in Australia] are vicious and given to the trick of buck jumping." [It may be worth while to add that this is not strictly accurate.]

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 94:

"`I should say that buck jumping was produced in this country by bad breaking,' said Mr. Neuchamp oracularly. `Don't you believe it, sir. Bucking is like other vices--runs in the blood.'"

Buck-shot, n. a settlers' term for a geological formation. See quotation.

1851. `The Australasian Quarterly,' p. 459:

"The plain under our feet was everywhere furrowed by Dead men's graves, and generally covered with the granulated lava, aptly named by the settlers buck-shot, and found throughout the country on these trappean `formations.

Buck-shot is always imbedded in a sandy alluvium, sometimes several feet thick."

Buddawong, n. a variation of Burraw.a.n.g (q.v.).

1877. Australie, `The Buddawong's Crown,' `Australian Poets,'

1788-1888, ed. Sladen, p. 39:

"A Buddawong seed-nut fell to earth, In a cool and mossy glade, And in spring it shot up its barbed green swords, Secure 'neath the myrtle's shade.

And the poor, poor palm has died indeed.

But little the strangers care, `There are zamias in plenty more,' they say, But the crown is a beauty rare."

Budgeree, adj. aboriginal word for good, which is common colloquially in the bush. See Budgerigar.

1793. J.Hunter, `Port Jackson,' p. 195:

"They very frequently, at the conclusion of the dance, would apply to us ... for marks of our approbation ... which we never failed to give by often repeating the word boojery, good; or boojery caribberie, a good dance."