<hw>Xanthorrhoea</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus of Australian plants, <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>, having thick palm-like trunks. They exude a yellow resin. (Grk. <i>Xanthos</i>, yellow, and <i>rhoia</i>, a flow, sc. of the resin.) They are called <i>Black Boys</i> and <i>Grass-trees</i> (q.v.).
Y
<hw>Yabber</hw>, <i>n</i>. Used for the talk of the aborigines. Some think it is the English word <i>jabber</i>, with the first letter pronounced as in German; but it is pronounced by the aborigines <i>yabba</i>, without a final <i>r</i>. <i>Ya</i> is an aboriginal stem, meaning to speak. In the Kabi dialect, <i>yaman</i> is to speak: in the Wiradhuri, <i>yarra</i>.
1874. M. K. Beveridge, `Lost Life,' pt. iii. p. 37:
"I marked
Much yabber that I did not know."
1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 28:
"Longing to fire a volley of blacks' yabber across a London dinner-table."
1886. R. Henty, `Australiana,' p. 23:
"The volleys of abuse and `yabber yabber' they would then utter would have raised the envy of the greatest `Mrs. Moriarty' in the Billingsgate fishmarket."
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 55: