Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia

by Edward Ellis Morris

<hw>School-Schnapper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. A name given to the <i>Schnapper</i> when three years old. See <i>Schnapper</i>.

<hw>Scorpion</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the New South Wales fish <i>Pentaroge marmorata</i>, Cuv. and Val.; called also the <i>Fortescue</i> (q.v.), and the <i>Cobbler</i>.

<hw>Scotchman</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand name for a smaller kind of the grass called <i>Spaniard</i> (q.v.).

1895. W. S. Roberts, `Southland in 1856,' p. 39:

"As we neared the hills speargrass of the smaller kind, known as Scotchmen,' abounded, and although not so strong and sharp-pointed as the `Spaniard,' would not have made a comfortable seat."

1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5:

". . . national appellations are not satisfactory. It seems uncivil to a whole nation—another injustice to Ireland—to call a bramble a wild Irishman, or a pointed grass, with the edges very sharp and the point like a bayonet, a Spaniard. One could not but be amused to find the name Scotchman applied to a smaller kind of Spaniard.'

<hw>Scribbly-Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. also called <i>White-Gum</i>, <i>Eucalyptus haemastoma</i>, Sm., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. See <i>Gum</i>.

1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 174:

"Scribbly or White-Gum. As regards timber this is the most worthless of the Queensland species. A tree, often large, with a white, smooth, deciduous bark, always marked by an insect in a scribbly manner."