a name for a Colonial Experience (q.v.), a young man fresh from England, learning squatting;called in New Zealand a Cadet (q.v.). Compare the American «tenderfoot.» A verse definition runs:
«To do all sorts and kinds of jobs,
Help all the men Jacks, Bills or Bobs,
As well as he is able.
To be neither boss, overseer, nor man,
But a little of all as well as he can,
And eat at the master's table.»
The word is generally supposed to be a corruption (in imitationof the word Kangaroo) of the words «Johnny Raw.» Mr. Meston,in the `Sydney Bulletin,' April 18, 1896, says it comes fromthe old Brisbane blacks, who called the pied crow shrike( Strepera graculina) «tchaceroo,» a gabbling andgarrulous bird. They called the German missionaries of 1838 «jackeroo,» a gabbler, because they were always talking.Afterwards they applied it to all white men.
1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 19:
«Jackaroos – – the name given to young gentlemen newly arrivedfrom home to gather colonial experiences.»
1881. A. C. Grant `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i.p. 53:
«The young jackaroo woke early next morning.»
[Footnote]: «The name by which young men who go to theAustralian colonies to pick up colonial experience aredesignated.»
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 85:
«Of course before starting on their own account to work astation they go into the bush to gain colonial experience,during which process they are known in the colony as`jackaroos.'»
1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydneyside Saxon,' p. 74:
«We went most of the way by rail and coach, and then ajackaroo met us with a fine pair of horses in a waggonette.I expected to see a first cousin to a kangaroo, when thecoachdriver told us, instead of a young gentleman learningsquatting.»
1894. `Sydney Morning Herald' (date lost):
«`Jack-a-roo' is of the same class of slang; but the unluckyfellow – – often gentle and soft-handed – – who does the oddwork of asheep or cattle station, if he finds time and heart for lettersto any who love him, probably writes his rue with adifference.»
to lead the life of a Jackaroo.
1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 152:
«I've seen such a lot of those new chums, one way and another.
They knock down all their money at the first go-off, and then there's nothing for them to do but to go and jackaroo up in Queensland.»
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xix. p. 239:
«A year or two more Jackerooing would only mean the consumptionof so many more figs of negro-head, in my case.»