This is a lexicographal point rather than an ornithological one; I hope it
won't generate the heat that the juvenile/juvenal thread did (for the record
I think that 'juvenal' is simply a rationalisation of the spelling of
''juvenile' to reflect US pronounciation (cf 'missile') and a redundant one).
Anyway, in Pizzey's (1997) account of the habitat of the Nullabour race of
the Cinnamon Quail-thrush he writes 'bluebush, saltbush, dead finish, etc
(Garnett 1993)'.
I guess I know what he means by 'finish' in this sense, something like,
'light vegetation arrived at a point of being dried or withered', but I
can't find this sense in any dictionary and I tried, in order:
1. The Macquarie
2. The Australian National Dictionary (OUP)
3. The OED (full edition, usually good on pre C20 Australian usage)
4. The Oxford Dialect Dictionary (as many Australian usages are from English
dialect usages)
5. various US dictionaries, inc Webster's (in case it was originally a US
usage).
but none of them recognises 'finish' in this sense (it's much more common to
be unable to track down an unusual use of a recognised word than an unusual
word with no other senses).
Presumably Pizzey knows it for a recognisable usage, in fact his book
occasionally throws up some delighful uses, and older usages which are not
common now, and presumably his previous editions were even better from this
point of view.
Is this phrase 'dead finish' in the previous Pizzey? do birding-ausers
recognise the usage? Is the phrase in 'Garnett 1993' (whatever this is, the
bibliography in Pizzey omits it).
John Leonard
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