cornstalk

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

n.


a young man or a girl bornand bred in New South Wales, especially if tall and big.

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,'vol. ii. p. 116:

«The colonial-born, bearing also the name of cornstalks (Indiancorn), from the way in which they shoot up.»

1834. Geo. Benett, `Wanderings in New South Wales,' vol. i.p. 341:

«The Australian ladies may compete for personal beauty andelegance with any European, although satirized as `Cornstalks,'from the slenderness of their forms.»

1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 68:

«Our host was surrounded by a little army of `cornstalks.'. . .The designation `cornstalk' is given because the young peoplerun up like the stems of the Indian corn.»

1869. W. R. Honey, `Madeline Clifton,' Act III. sc. v. p. 30:

«Look you, there stands young cornstalk.»

1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 526:

«If these are the heroes that my cornstalk friends worshipso ardently, they must indeed be hard up for heroes.»

1893. Haddon Chambers, `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian Life,'p. 217:

«While in the capital I fell in with several jolly cornstalks,with whom I spent a pleasant time in boating, fishing, andsometimes camping out down the harbour.»

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