pudding-ball

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

n.


a fish; corruption of theaboriginal name of it, puddinba (q.v.), by the lawof Hobson-Jobson.

1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 96:

«The species of fish that are commonest in the Bay (Moreton)are mullet, bream, puddinba (a native word corrupted by thecolonists into pudding-ball) . . . The puddinba is like amullet in shape, but larger, and very fat; it is esteemed agreat delicacy.»

1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407 col. 4:

«`Pudding-ball' is the name of a fish. It has nothing to dowith pudding, nothing with any of the various meanings of ball.The fish is not specially round. The aboriginal name was`pudden-ba.' Voila tout

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