| 释义 |
mulga Austral.|ˈmʌlgə|
Also malga, mulgah, mulgam.
[Native Australian.]
1. a. A small spreading tree, Acacia aneura, widespread in dry inland areas of Australia, or one of several related trees found in such regions; also, land covered with vegetation of this kind. Also attrib. and used colloq. in general sense ‘uninhabited or inhospitable region’.
1862Kendall Poems 79 Look for the malga, and salt⁓bitten shrubs. 1864J. M. Stuart Explor. Australia 190 Our course was through a very thick mulga scrub. Ibid. 345, I..entered a dense forest of tall mulga. 1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Native Plants Australia 3 These latter galls are called ‘Mulga-apples’, and are said to be very welcome to the thirsty traveller. Ibid. 82 Danthonia racemosa..‘Mulga Grass’... It derives its vernacular name from being only found where the Mulga-tree (Acacia aneura and other species) grows. Ibid. 94 Neurachne Mitchelliana..‘Mulga Grass’. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 400 The boundless ocean-plains.. where the saltbush grows, and the myall and the mulgah. 1893Mrs. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. 36 She wanted to see if there were any late mulgams..and..did find some untimely berries. 1896H. Lawson While Billy Boils 40 Two or three white-washed galvanized-iron roofs start out of the mulga. 1903‘T. Collins’ Such is Life 79 When he says ‘mulga’, he means any tree except pine or currajong. 1909‘S. Rudd’ From Selection to City (1910) xiv. 119 We had listened to many lies about the glory of running wild horses and cattle in the mulga. 1911C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling i. 3 Belts of low mulga scrub. Ibid. x. 88 The graceful grey mulga trees..came right down to the river. 1928V. Palmer Man Hamilton 26 Manager of this isolated place in the mulga, a hundred miles away from anywhere. 1936F. Clune Roaming round Darling xxii. 223 A mulgawood causeway was built in front for a distance of thirty yards. 1946F. D. Davison Dusty (1947) 1 They live at the bidding of herdsman and drover.., punching stubborn bullocks through the mulga. 1960Times 5 July 11/6 The country was covered with light mulga scrub. 1964Punch 18 Nov. 750/2 To pack a gun around the mulga. 1967Sunday Mail Mag. (Brisbane) 8 Jan. 6/3, I had fancied myself original in conceiving the idea of taking a hot bath at 9 o'clock at night out in the ‘mulga’ in the middle of winter, and had borrowed a pair of swim trunks for the purpose. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 5 On the stony hills, the mulga trees gave no shade. Ibid. 114 In this mental state he couldn't stay out in the mulga. 1969Northern Territory News (Darwin) Focus '69 97/1 Contractors take the fuel off the Track to places out in the sticks and the mulga.
b. Comb., as mulga-covered, mulga-dotted adjs.; mulga madness slang (see quot. 1943); mulga parrot, a brightly coloured parrot, Psephotus varius, whose plumage includes patches of red, yellow, blue, and green; mulga scrubber slang (see quot. 1945); mulga wire slang = grape-vine 2 a; a rumour, message, or report; a lie or false report.
1936I. L. Idriess Cattle King iv. 27 They rode for thirty miles among the low, mulga-covered ridges that are the foot-hills of the Barrier Range. 1971World Archaeol. III. 170 The mulga-covered flats.
1936F. Clune Roaming round Darling xxii. 226 Steep mulga-dotted headland along Bluff Waterhole.
1943Baker Dict. Austral. Slang (ed. 3) 52 Mulga madness, the ‘queerness’ sometimes developed in lone bushmen or fossickers.
1931N. W. Cayley What Bird is That? 144 Mulga Parrot... Also called Many-coloured Parrot and Varied Parrot. 1941I. L. Idriess Great Boomerang ii. 12 Mulga parrots and blue-bonnets lent a flash of living colour to the light-grey saltbush. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 115 With the sun would come the parrakeets, mulga parrots, their green wings flashing in the sun.
1945Baker Austral. Lang. iii. 67 The bullock driver and stockman have invented many terms by which to describe their charges. Here are some of the best:..mulga scrubbers.., stock that have run wild and deteriorated in condition.
1899Mulga-wire [see sense 3 below]. 1913H. Lawson Triangles of Life iii, in Stories (1964) 3rd Ser. 182 Tom had been out early, or had got what we call a bush telegraphy or mulga wire. 1937E. Hill Great Austral. Loneliness xxiii. 207 Warned by the mulga wires of the approach of a white woman. Ibid. 329 Mulga wires. Bush telegraph, gossip of the outback. 1940A. W. Upfield Bushranger of Skies ix. 101 This morning I found Itcheroo squatted before a little fire and sending or receiving a mulga wire. 1964Evening Post (Wellington, N.Z.) 3 Mar. 17 The grapevine or ‘mulga wire’ in opera circles was instrumental in the return to Wellington of [a]..mezzo-soprano.
2. Something made of the wood of a mulga tree:
a. a club;
b. a shield.
1839T. L. Mitchell Three Exped. II. 269 The malga is a weapon usually made in the form of fig. 2, but that with which these natives were provided somewhat resembled a pick-axe with one half broken off. 1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Native Plants Australia 349 ‘Mulga’ is the name of a long narrow shield of wood, made by the aboriginals out of Acacia wood.
3. slang. Short for mulga wire.
1899Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Mar. 15/2 A lie or false report is, in N.S.W., a ‘Mulga’ or ‘Mulga-wire’. 1908E. S. Sorenson Quinton's Rouseabout 186 They'll be that delighted to find it was only a mulga that they'd toast you as ‘a jolly good fellow’. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 47 Mulga, a falsehood, a rumour. 1950K. S. Prichard Winged Seeds 297 The troops've had it all by mulga. They've heard too. |