birding-aus

Re: Drongo in the pejorative

To:
Subject: Re: Drongo in the pejorative
From: John Larocque <>
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 10:59:39 +1000
See W.S. Ramson ed., _The Australian National Dictionary_ (OUP, 1988)
which says:

drongo. [Transf. use of drongo the name of a bird. Perh. infl. by its
earlier use as the name of a racehorse (running between 1923 and 1925);
see quots. 1924 and 1946.] A fool or simpleton, a 'no-hoper' (orig. of a
Royal Australian Air Force recruit). Also drong and attrib. ... 1924
Argus (Melbourne) 1 Nov. 24/5 Drongo is sure to be a very hard horse to
beat. He is improving with every run.] ... 1946 Salt (Melbourne) 8 Apr.
22 Drongo was the name of a horse who failed to win a race. ... The
horse retired in 1925 and after that anybody or anything slow or clumsy
became a Drongo.

jl
-- 
______________________________________________________________
John Larocque 
Canberra Australia

_______________________________________________________________


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU