Austral English Part 221
Plate p. 272--A kangaroo. Description of teeth.
Plate p. 278--Wha Tapoua Roo, about the size of a Rac.o.o.n [probably an opossum].
Plate p. 286--A Poto Roo or Kangaroo-Rat.
Plate p. 288--Hepoona Roo.
, still used in California.
1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xxi. p. 150:
"You could `rope' ... any Clifton colt or filly, back them in three days, and within a week ride a journey."
. (1) Of cattle; so wild and intractable as to be capable of subjection only by being roped.
See preceding word.
(2) By transference: intractable, angry, out of temper.
1891. `The Argus,' Oct. 10, p. 13, col. 4:
"The service has shown itself so `ropeable' heretofore that one experiences now a kind of chastened satisfaction in seeing it roped and dragged captive at Sir Frederick's saddle-bow."
1896. Modern. In school-boy slang: "You must not chaff him, he gets so ropeable."
. a long pole used for casting a rope over an animal's head in the stockyard.
1880. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. iv. p. 44:
"I happened to knock down the superintendent with a roping-pole."
1895. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 125:
"I'm travelling down the Castlereagh and I'm a station-hand, I'm handy with the ropin'-pole, I'm handy with the brand, And I can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day, But there's no demand for a station-hand along the Castlereagh."
, Lamarck, a marine mollusc of small size and black colour used for necklaces, bracelets, and in place of the "beads" of a rosary.
. It has bright green leaves and very fragrant rose-coloured flowers.
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. The name is given by Gould as applied to two Parrakeets--
(1) Platycercus eximius, Vig. and Hors., called by the Colonists of New South Wales, and by Gould, the Rose-hill Parrakeet.
(2) Platycercus icterotis, Wagl., called by the Colonists of Swan River, Western Australia, the Rose-hill, and by Gould the Earl of Derby's Parrakeet.
The modern name for both these birds is Rosella (q.v.), though it is more specifically confined to the first.
`Rose-hill' was the name of the Governor's residence at Parramatta, near Sydney, in the early days of the settlement of New South Wales, and the name Rosella is a settler's corruption of Rose-hiller, though the erroneous etymology from the Latin rosella (sc. `a little rose') is that generally given. The word Rosella, however, is not a scientific name, and does not appear as the name of any genus or species; it is vernacular only, and no settler or bushman is likely to have gone to the Latin to form it.
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 27:
"Platycercus eximius, Vig. & Hors. Rose-hill Parrakeet; Colonists of New South Wales."
Ibid. vol. v. pl. 29:
"Platycercus icterotis, Wagl. The Earl of Derby's Parrakeet; Rose-hill of the Colonists [of Swan River]."
(q.v.).
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 80:
"The common white c.o.c.katoo, and the Moreton Bay Rosella parrot, were very numerous."
1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 99:
"Saw the bright rosellas fly, With b.r.e.a.s.t.s that glowed like sunsets In the fiery western sky."
1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 13, col. 5:
"The solitudes where the lorikeets and rosellas chatter."
1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 60:
"As [the race] sweeps past the Stand every year in a close bright ma.s.s the colours, of the different clubs, are as dazzling and gay in the sun as a brilliant flight of galahs and rosellas."
(2) In Northern Australia, it is a slang name for a European who works bared to the waist, which some, by a gradual process of discarding clothing, acquire the power of doing. The scorching of the skin by the sun produces a colour which probably suggested a comparison with the bright scarlet of the parrakeet so named.
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1703. W. Dampier, `Voyage to New Holland,' vol. iii. p. 138:
"There grow here 2 or 3 sorts of Shrubs, one just like Rosemary; and therefore I call'd this Rosemary Island.
It grew in great plenty here, but had no smell."
[This island is in or near Shark's Bay]
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(q.v.).
, name given to the timber of three trees.
(1) Acacia glaucescens, Willd., N.O. Leguminosae; called also Brigalow, Mountain Brigalow, and Myall.
(2) Dysoxylon fraserianum, Benth., N.O. Meliaceae; called also Pencil Cedar.