† cockatooern.
Australian colloquial. Obsolete.
A farmer working a small-scale farm; = cockatoo n. 3. Cf. cockatoo v. 1, cockatooing n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farmer > [noun] > small farmer
wool hat1794
smallholder1800
cockatoo1844
cockatoo farmer1844
cockatooer1852
cocky1868
yardland-holder1890
yardlander1891
minifundista1969
1852 L. A. Meredith My Home in Tasmania II. 137 ‘Cockatooers’..are not..a species of bird, but human beings who rent portions of this forest from the proprietors..and vainly endeavour to exist on what they can earn.
1872 G. S. Baden-Powell New Homes for Old Country 456 In all parts of Australia the antagonism existing between the squatters and ‘free selectors’, ‘cockatooers’, continually forces itself upon the attention.
1891 J. Fenton Bush Life Tasmania xi. 95 For in those middle days there were many ‘cockatooers’, with more money than prudence.
1917 H. H. Richardson Fortunes Richard Mahony I. iii. viii. 288 It was a rough grizzled fellow—a ‘cockatooer’, on his own showing—who presented himself in the lamplight, and told his tale.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2019).
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n.1852