| 释义 |
she-oak Austral.
Forms: α. 8– she-oak, 9 sheoak; β. 9 shea-oak; γ. quasi-native name 9 sheac(k, shia(c)k, sheak.
[See she 10 e; cf. he-oak, he 8 b
There is no foundation for the allegation that the word is a corruption of a native Australian or Tasmanian name. Another assertion, that it is a corruption of the name of an American tree, is also baseless.]
1. a. A tree of the genus Casuarina.
α1792G. Thompson Slavery & Famine (1794) 18 There are two kinds of oak, called the he and the she oak, but not to be compared with English oak. 1818J. Oxley Jrnl. Two Exped. N.S. Wales (1820) 292 That species of casuarina called the beef wood (or she oak) was also seen to-day for the first time. 1875Zoologist Ser. ii. X. 4619 Sandal wood, mulga, she oak, all are devoured with apparent relish. 1891E. Kinglake Australian at Home 123 Its banks fringed with the dark sheoak and the bending willow.
β1842[see γ]. 1902‘Bessie Marchant’ (Mrs. J. A. Comfort) Brave Little Cousin xxiv. 187 Under the shelter of a great Shea oak.
γ [1835J. Ross Hobart-town Almanack 75 Casuarina torulosa? She-oak. C. stricta? He-oak. C. tenuissima? Marsh-oak. The name of the first of these is said to be a corruption of Sheac, the name of an American tree, producing the beef wood, like our She-oak. 1842Western Australia v. 80 The Shea-oak (a corruption of sheăk, the native name for this, or a similar tree, in Van Diemen's Land) is used chiefly for shingles.] 1852S. Sidney Three Colonies of Australia xxiv. 347 The lowlands..present a dull scene, sprinkled with funereal shiak or ‘she-oak trees’. 1857W. Howitt Tallangetta I. i. 24 Trees of a peculiar character—the Casuarinas or Shiacks. 1862G. T. Lloyd 33 Yrs. Tasmania iii. 32 The ‘Sheac’ (perverted into she oak) or beef-wood tree, is very abundant. 1891[see b].
b. attrib.
1852She-oak tree [see above]. 1874G. Walch Adamanta i. ii. 16 She-oak Shavings. a1880D. S. Stewart in Fison & Howitt Kamilaroi 168 Sheoak trees. 1891F. Adams John Webb's End 223 A few stunted sheak trees.
2. a. Slang name for beer.
1873J. C. F. Johnson Christmas on Carringa 1 Able to put away at a sitting a larger quantity of colonial ‘sheoak’ than any man of his inches. 1888Cassell's Picturesque Australia (1890) III. 83 Their drivers had completed their regulation half-score of ‘long⁓sleevers’ of ‘she-oak’. 1893J. A. Barry Steve Brown's Bunyip 282 Hastily finishing his pint of ‘sheoak’.
b. attrib. and Comb., as she-oak beer; she-oak net, a safety net for sailors boarding ship (see quot. 1898).
1927F. H. Shaw Knocking Around 106 She-oak beer, the common Australian beverage, was a potent tipple.
1898Morris Austral Eng. 415/1 She-oak nets, nets placed on each side of a gangway from a ship to the pier, to prevent sailors who have been indulging in she-oak (beer) falling into the water. 1925R. Clements Gipsy of Horn 111 Old Australian traders used to spread a net under the gang⁓way, called therefrom the sheoke net, whose office it was to save mariners who ‘missed stays’ when coming aboard from falling into the dock. 1938W. E. Dexter Rope Yarns 234 A dog..followed every drunken sailor—never by any chance a sober one—down the pier to his ship. If he managed to get on board safely the dog returned, but if he fell into the she-oak net it would howl until the man was rescued. |