cockatoo farmer
English edit
Etymology edit
Probably refers to the practice of working a small patch of land for a short period before moving on, in the manner of a feeding cockatoo.[1] Alternatively so called to compare the farmers with the common sulphur-crested cockatoo, which come down on the newly sown cornfields in myriads.[2]
Noun edit
cockatoo farmer (plural cockatoo farmers)
- (Australia, derogatory, obsolete) A small-scale farmer.
- 1875, Anthony Trollope, edited by Bradford Allen Booth, The Tireless Traveler: Twenty Letters to the Liverpool Mercury, page 177:
- The cockatoo farmer of South Australia lives a plentiful but not a picturesque life, and unless he gets hopelessly into debt is his own master.
- 1888, William Gordon Stables, From Squire to Squatter[1], page 182:
- “ Does it pay to breed cockatoos ?” said Archie innocently.
“Don′t be the death o′ me, Johnnie. A cockatoo farmer is just a crofter. […] ”
- 1911, The Academy, volume 81, page 415:
- This is the dwelling of a cockatoo-farmer, the humble agriculturist who makes the most of his thirty or forty acres of land, […]
Usage notes edit
The term (sometimes abbreviated as "cockie") was used by squatters in disparagement of the small scale of the operations.
References edit
- ^ Australian National Dictionary Centre » Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms » C.
- ^ Lentzner Karl, "Dictionary of the slang-english of Australia, and of some mixed languages", 1893.