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

1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 96:

"The species of fish that are commonest in the Bay (Moreton) are mullet, bream, puddinba (a native word corrupted by the colonists into pudding-ball) . . . The puddinba is like a mullet in shape, but larger, and very fat; it is esteemed a great delicacy."

1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407 col. 4:

"`Pudding-ball' is the name of a fish. It has nothing to do with pudding, nothing with any of the various meanings of ball. The fish is not specially round. The aboriginal name was `pudden-ba.' <i>Voila tout</i>."

<hw>Pukeko</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the bird <i>Porphyrio melanonotus</i>, the <i>Swamp-Hen</i> (q.v.).

1896. `Otago Witness,' June 11, p. 51:

"Two <i>pukaki</i> [sic] flew across their path."

<hw>Punga</hw>, <i>n</i>. the trunk of the tree-fern that is known as <i>Cyathea medullaris</i>, the "black fern " of the settlers. It has an edible pith.

1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 115:

"Some of the trees were so alarmed that they held down their heads, and have never been able to hold them up since; amongst these were the ponga (a fern-tree) and the kareao (supple-jack), whose tender shoots are always bent."