1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 100
"A roomy, roughly-finished building known as the `barracks.' . . . . Three of the numerous bedrooms were tenanted by young men, . . . neophytes, who were gradually assimilating the love of Bush-land."
<hw>Barracouta</hw>, or <hw>Barracoota</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name, under its original spelling of <i>Barracuda</i>, was coined in the Spanish West Indies, and first applied there to a large voracious fish, <i>Sphyraena pecuda</i>, family <i>Sphyraenidae</i>. In Australia and New Zealand it is applied to a smaller edible fish, <i>Thyrsites atun</i>, Cuv. and Val., family <i>Trichiuridae</i>, called <i>Snook</i> (q.v.) at the Cape of Good Hope. It is found from the Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand.
1845. `Voyage to Port Philip,' p. 40:
"We hook the barracuda fish."
1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fishes of New South Wales,' p. 69:
"<i>Sphyrenidae</i>. The first family is the barracudas, or sea-pike." [Footnote]: "This name is no doubt the same as Barracouta and is of Spanish origin. The application of it to <i>Thyrsites atun</i> in the Southern seas was founded on some fancied resemblance to the West Indian fish, which originally bore the name, though of course they are entirely different."
(2) The word is used as a nickname for an inhabitant of Hobart; compare <i>Cornstalk</i>.
<hw>Barramunda</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish, i.q. <i>Burramundi</i> (q.v.).
<hw>Basket-Fence</hw>, <i>n.</i> Local name for a stake-hedge. See quotation.