"Aru Island Wallaby. <i>Macropus brunnii</i>, Cuvier (1817). <i>Didelphys brunnii</i>, Schreber (1778). . . Distribution.— Aru and Kei Islands. This species has an especial interest as being the first member of the Kangaroo-family known to Europeans, specimens having been seen in the year 1711 by [Philander de] Bruyn living in the gardens of the Dutch Governor of Batavia. They were originally described under the name of Philander or Filander."
<hw>Phormium</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of the genus to which <i>New Zealand Flax</i> (<i>P. tenax</i>) belongs. See <i>Flax</i>. (Grk. <i>phormion</i>, dim. of <i>phormos</i>, anything plaited of reeds or rushes.)
<hw>Pialler</hw>, v. used as pigeon-English, especially in Queensland and New South Wales, in the sense of <i>yabber</i>, to speak.
1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar,' p. 10:
[As a barbarism] "<i>piyaller</i>, to speak."
1885. R. M. Praed, `Head Station,' p. 314:
"Hester seized the shrinking black and led him forward, wildly crying that she would `pialla' the Great Spirit, so that no evil should befall him."
<hw>Piccaninny</hw>, and <hw>Pickaninny</hw>, <i>n</i>. a little child. The word is certainly not Australian. It comes from the West Indies (Cuban <i>piquinini</i>, little, which is from the Spanish <i>pequeno</i>, small, and <i>nino</i>, child). The English who came to Australia, having heard the word applied to negro children elsewhere, applied it to the children of the aborigines. After a while English people thought the word was aboriginal Australian, while the aborigines thought it was correct English. It is pigeon-English.
1696. D'Urfey's `Don Quixote,' pt. iii. c. v. p. 41 (Stanford):
"Dear pinkaninny [sic],
If half a guiny
To Love wilt win ye."