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>Stamper</hw>, or <hw>Stamphead</hw>, <i>n</i>. "A cast-iron weight, or head, fixed on to a shank or lifter, and used for stamping or reducing quartz to a fine sand." (Brough Smyth, `Glossary.') The word is used elsewhere as a term in machinery. In Australia, it signifies the appliance above described. The form <i>stamphead</i> is the earlier one. The shorter word <i>stamper</i> is now the more usual.

1869. J. F. Blanche, `Prince's Visit,' p. 25:

"For steam and stampers now are all the rage."

1880. A. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 76:

"The battery was to have eight stampers."

1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 11:

"This, with the old battery, brings the number of stampers up to sixty."

Ibid. p. 15:

"A battery of twenty-six stamp heads."

<hw>Star of Bethlehem</hw>. The Old World plant is <i>Ornithogalum umbellatum</i>; the name is given in Australia to <i>Chamaescilla corymbosa</i>, and in Tasmania to <i>Burchardia umbellata</i>, R. Br., both of the <i>Liliaceae</i>.