scrub

I.

n.

country overgrown with thick bushes.Henry Kingsley's explanation (1859), that the word meansshrubbery, is singularly misleading, the English word conveyingan idea of smallness and order compared with the size andconfusion of the Australian use. Yet he is etymologicallycorrect, for Scrobb is Old English (Anglo-Saxon) forshrub; but the use had disappeared in England.

1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. c. i. p. 21:

«We encamped about noon in some scrub.»

1838. T. L. Mitchell,' Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 213:

«A number of gins and children remained on the borders of thescrub, half a mile off.»

1844. J A. Moore, `Tasmanian Rhymings' (1860), p. 13:

«Here Nature's gifts, with those of man combined,

Hath [sic] from a scrub a Paradise defined.»

1848. W. Westgarth, «Australia Felix,' p. 24:

«The colonial term scrub, of frequent and convenient use in thedescription of Australian scenery, is applicable to denseassemblages of harsh wild shrubbery, tea-tree, and other of thesmaller and crowded timber of the country, and somewhatanalogous to the term jungle.»

1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. 155[Footnote]:

« Scrub. I have used, and shall use, this word so oftenthat some explanation is due to the English reader. I can giveno better definition of it than by saying that it means`shrubbery.'»

1864. J. McDouall Stuart, `Exploration in Australia,' p. 153:

«At four miles arrived on the top, through a very thick scrubof mulga.»

1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. v. p. 78:

«Woods which are open and passable – – passable at any rate for menon horseback – – are called bush. When the undergrowth becomes,thick and matted, so as to be impregnable without an axe, it isscrub.»

[Impregnability is not a necessary point of the definition.

There is «light» scrub, and «heavy» or «thick» scrub.]

1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 67[Note]:

«Scrub was a colonial term for dense undergrowth, like that ofthe mallee-scrub.»

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 7:

«Where . . . a belt of scrub lies green, glossy, andimpenetrable as Indian bungle.»

(p. 8): «The nearest scrub, in the thickets of which the Blackscould always find an impenetrable stronghold.»

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 36:

«A most magnificent forest of trees, called in Australia a`scrub,' to distinguish it from open timbered country.»

1890. J. McCarthy and R. M. Praed, `Ladies' Gallery,' p. 252:

«Why, I've been alone in the scrub – – in the desert, I mean; youwill understand that better.»

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 374:

«One more prominent feature in Australian vegetation are thelarge expanses of the so-called `scrub' of the colonists. Thisis a dense covering of low bushes varying in composition indifferent districts, and named according to the predominatingelement.»

1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 46:

«Just as Tartary is characterised by its steppes, America byits prairies, and Africa by its deserts, so Australia has onefeature peculiar to itself, and that is its `scrubs.'. . .One of the most common terms used by explorers is `Mallee'scrub, so called from its being composed of dwarf species ofEucalyptus called the `Mallee' by the Natives. . . . Stillmore dreaded by the explorer is the `Mulga' scrub, consistingchiefly of dwarf acacias.»

1894. E. Favenc, `Tales of the Austral Tropics,' p. 3:

«Even more desolate than the usual dreary-looking scrubof the interior of Australia.»

[p. 6]: «The sea of scrub.»

1896. A. B. Paterson, `Manfrom Snowy River,' p. 25:

«Born and bred on the mountain-side,

He could race through scrub like a kangaroo.»

II.

adj.

and in composition.The word scrub occurs constantly in composition.See the following words.

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 113:

«We gathered the wild raspberries, and mingling them withgee-bongs, and scrub-berries, set forth a dessert.»