The Dictionary thus includes the following classes of Words,
Phrases and Usages; viz.--
(1) Old English names of Natural Objects--Birds, Fishes,
Animals, Trees, Plants, etc.--applied (in the first instance by
the early settlers) either to new Australian species of such
objects, or to new objects bearing a real or fancied
resemblance to them--as <i>Robin, Magpie, Herring, Cod, Cat,
Bear, Oak, Beech, Pine, Cedar, Cherry, Spinach, Hops, Pea,
Rose</i>.
(2) English names of objects applied in Australia to others
quite different-as <i>Wattle</i>, a hurdle, applied as the name
of the tree <i>Wattle</i>, from whose twigs the hurdle was most
readily made; <i>Jackass</i>, an animal, used as the name for
the bird <i>Jackass</i>; <i>Cockatoo</i>, a birdname, applied
to a small farmer.
(3) Aboriginal Australian and Maori words which have been
incorporated unchanged in the language, and which still denote
the original object--as <i>Kangaroo, Wombat, Boomerang, Whare,
Pa, Kauri</i>.
(4) Aboriginal Australian and Maori words which have been
similarly adopted, and which have also had their original
meaning extended and applied to other things--as <i>Bunyip,
Corrobbery, Warrigal</i>.
(5) Anglicised corruptions of such words--as <i>Copper-Maori,
Go-ashore, Cock-a-bully, Paddy-melon, Pudding-ball,
Tooky-took</i>.
(6) Fanciful, picturesque, or humorous names given to new
Australasian Natural Objects--as <i>Forty-spot, Lyre-bird,
Parson-bird, and Coach-whip</i> (birds); <i>Wait-a-while</i> (a
tangled thicket); <i>Thousand-jacket, Jimmy Low, Jimmy
Donnelly, and Roger Gough</i> (trees); <i>Axe-breaker,
Cheese-wood, and Raspberry Jam</i> (timbers); <i>Trumpeter,
Schnapper and Sergeant Baker</i> (fishes);
<i>Umbrella-grass</i> and <i>Spaniard</i> (native plants), and
so on.
(7) Words and phrases of quite new coinage, or arising from
quite new objects or orders of things--as <i>Larrikin, Swagman,
Billy, Free-selector, Boundary-rider, Black-tracker,
Back-blocks, Clear-skin, Dummyism, Bushed.</i>
(8) Scientific names arising exclusively from Australasian
necessities, chiefly to denote or describe new Natural Orders,
Genera, or Species confined or chiefly appertaining to
Australia--as <i>Monotreme, Petrogale, Clianthus, Ephthianura,
Dinornis, Eucalypt, Boronia, Ornithorhynchus, Banksia</i>.
(9) Slang (of which the element is comparatively small)--
as <i>Deepsinker, Duck-shoving, Hoot, Slushy, Boss-cockie,
On-the-Wallaby</i>.