Austral English Part 68

"Jungo---Beasts, common name.

Tein-go---Din-go.

Wor-re-gal---Dog."

1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' p. 62:

"The native dog also, which is a species of the wolf, was proved to be fully equal in this respect [sport] to the fox; but as the pack was not sufficiently numerous to kill these animals at once, they always suffered so severely from their bite that at last the members of the hunt were shy in allowing the dogs to follow them."

1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar,' p. 55:

"Tigko---a b.i.t.c.h."

1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes `(1855), p. 153:

"I have heard that the dingo, warragal or native dog, does not hunt in packs like the wolf and jackal."

1860. William Story, `Victorian Government Prize Essays,' p. 101:

"The English hart is so greatly superior, as an animal of chase, to that cunning poultry thief the fox, that I trust Mister Reynard will never be allowed to become an Australian immigrant, and that when the last of the dingoes shall have shared the fate of the last English wolf, Australian Nimrods will resuscitate, at the antipodes of England, the sterling old national sport of hart hunting, conjointly with that of African boks, gazelles, and antelopes, and leave the fox to their English cousins, who cannot have Australian choice."

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 103:

"In the neighbourhood of Brisbane and other large towns where they have packs, they run the dingoes as you do foxes at home."

1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 113:

"The arms of the Wimmera should be rabbit and dingo, `rampant,'

supporting a sun, `or, inflamed.'"

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 71:

"Dingoes, the Australian name for the wild dogs so destructive to sheep. They were ... neither more nor less than wolves, but more cowardly and not so ferocious, seldom going in large packs. They hunted kangaroos when in numbers, or driven to it by hunger; but usually preferred smaller and more easily obtained prey, as rats, bandicoots, and 'possums."

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 38:

"On the large stations a man is kept whose sole work it is to lay out poison for the dingo. The black variety with white breast generally appears in Western Queensland along with the red."

1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne':

"The dingo of northern Australia can be distinguished from his brother of the south by his somewhat smaller size and courageous bearing. He always carries his tail curled over his back, and is ever ready to attack any one or anything; whilst the southern dingo carries his tail low, slinks along like a fox, and is easily frightened. The pure dingo, which is now exceedingly rare in a wild state, partly through the agency of poison, but still more from the admixture of foreign breeds, is unable to bark, and can only express its feelings in long-drawn weird howls."

1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. l1, col. 4:

"Why is the first call of a dingo always apparently miles away, and the answer to it--another quavering note slightly more shrill--so close at hand? Is it delusion or distance?"

Dinornis, n. the scientific name given by Professor Owen to the genus of huge struthious birds of the post-Pliocene period, in New Zealand, which survive in the traditions of the Maoris under the name of Moa (q.v.).

From the Greek deinos, terrible, and 'ornis, bird.

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. Intro.

p. xviii:

"The specimens [fossil-bones] transmitted ... were confided to the learned Professor [Owen] for determination; and these materials, scanty as they were, enabled him to define the generic characters of Dinornis, as afforded by the bones of the hind extremity."

Ibid. p. xxiv:

"Professor Owen had well-nigh exhausted the vocabulary of terms expressive of largeness by naming his successive discoveries ingens, giganteus, cra.s.sus, robustus, and elephantopus, when he had to employ the superlative Dinornis maximus to distinguish a species far exceeding in stature even the stately Dinornis giganteus. In this colossal bird ... some of the cervical vertebrae almost equal in size the neck-bones of a horse! The skeleton in the British Museum ... measures 11 feet in height, and ... some of these feathered giants attained to a still greater stature."

Dipper, n. a vessel with a handle at the top of the side like a big tin mug. That with which one dips. The word is not Australian, but is of long standing in the United States, where it is used as a name for the constellation of the Great Bear.

1893. `Australasian Schoolmaster,' Feb.:

"These answers have not the true colonial ring of the following, which purports to be the remark of the woman of Samaria: `Sir, the well is very deep, and you haven't got a dipper.'"

Dips, n. Explained in quotation.

1859. G. Bunce, `Travels with Leichhardt,' p. 161:

"... Dr. Leichhardt gave the party a quant.i.ty of dough boys, or as we called them, dips..."

[p. 171]: "In this dilemma, Dr. Leichhardt ordered the cook to mix up a lot of flour, and treated us all to a feed of dips.

These were made as follows:--a quant.i.ty of flour was mixed up with water, and stirred with a spoon to a certain consistency, and dropped into a pot of boiling water, a spoonful at a time.

Five minutes boiling was sufficient, when they were eaten with the water in which they were boiled."

Dirt, n. In Australia, any alluvial deposit in which gold is found; properly Wash-dirt. The word is used in the United States. See quotation, 187.

1853. Mrs. Chas. Clancy, `Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings,'

p. 109:

"And after doing this several times, the `dirt,' of course, gradually diminis.h.i.+ng, I was overjoyed to see a few bright specks."

1857. Borthwick, `California,' [Bartlett, quoted in `O.E.D.']

p. 120:

"In California, `dirt' is the universal word to signify the substance dug; earth, clay, gravel, or loose slate. The miners talk of rich dirt and poor dirt, and of stripping off so many feet of `top dirt' before getting to `pay-dirt,' the latter meaning dirt with so much gold in it that it will pay to dig it up and wash it."

1870. J. O. Tucker, `The Mute,'p. 40:

"Others to these the precious dirt convey, Linger a moment till the panning's through."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xiv. p. 142:

"We were clean worked out ... before many of our neighbours at Greenstone Gully, were half done with their dirt."

Ibid. c. xviii. p. 177:

"We must trust in the Oxley `dirt' and a kind Providence."

Dish, n. and adj. a small and rough vessel in which gold is washed. The word is used in the United States.