Huckery?
Vernon Compton
used and understood in NZ to mean, "old, shabby, inferior" etc.
However, Googling it turns up nothing on its origin, neither does
looking up The Dictionary of NZ English, or the print version of OED2,
which lists one possible meaning, an archaic one related to husckster.
I have scoured a Maaori dictionary, looking for a possible Maaori
source, in case the word is unique to New Zealand, but without
success. Any help will be very much appreciated.
Donna Richoux
Nothing in my books under "huckery," "hucker," or "huck," but these are
fairly close:
Yankee Talk: A Dictionary of New England Expressions
hugger: disorderly, jumbled. "Till having failed
at hugger farming / he burned his house down for the
fire insurance." (Robert Frost, "The Star-Splitter,"
1923)
The Pocket Dictionary of American Slang (Wentworth & Flexner, 1968)
Hugger-mugger: adj. Slovenly; confused; makeshift
hugger-muggery: n. Deception; skull-duggery
1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (London)
hugger mugger. By stealth, privately, without making
an appearance. They spent their money in a hugger
mugger way.
Those may give you a new avenue to explore.
You don't mention the various on-line dictionaries, whose URLs are given
in Intro B (see http://www.alt-usage-english.org/)
--
Best wishes -- Donna Richoux
John Holmes
"Vernon Compton" <vernon...@myself.com> wrote in message
news:9087c931.02021...@posting.google.com...
I haven't heard the word in Australia and it is not in the Australian
Oxford, so it could well be a NZ-specific word. What spellings did you
look under? If it's a Maori word, I'd suspect it might be spelt
something like 'hakere'.
--
Regards
John
Vernon Compton
> Vernon Compton <vernon...@myself.com> wrote:
>
> Nothing in my books under "huckery," "hucker," or "huck," but these are
> fairly close:
>
> Yankee Talk: A Dictionary of New England Expressions
>
> hugger: disorderly, jumbled. "Till having failed
> at hugger farming / he burned his house down for the
> fire insurance." (Robert Frost, "The Star-Splitter,"
> 1923)
>
>
> The Pocket Dictionary of American Slang (Wentworth & Flexner, 1968)
>
> Hugger-mugger: adj. Slovenly; confused; makeshift
> hugger-muggery: n. Deception; skull-duggery
>
>
> 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (London)
>
> hugger mugger. By stealth, privately, without making
> an appearance. They spent their money in a hugger
> mugger way.
>
> Those may give you a new avenue to explore.
>
> You don't mention the various on-line dictionaries, whose URLs are given
> in Intro B (see http://www.alt-usage-english.org/)
Sorry about that, I should have mentioned that I had checked in
several of them, and a friend had checked in the OED's online version
as well. I am very grateful for your helpful suggestions. "Hugger"
seems a particularly likely candidate, given its first definition.
Thanks again.