Devil Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘god’ and now look at ‘devil’.

Dust devil has been seen since 1867.

A devil way is an early 13th century expression which then meant ‘the way to hell’ and the like. A century later it was used as an expression of irritation; and by 1680 described ‘an errand boy in a printing office’. The latter probably came about because of them suffering stains on their person from the printing ink, which was always black as were devils.

Devil’s books, seen since 1729, was used to refer to playing cards.

Devil’s coachhorse is actually a beetle, a rather aggressive little blighter first identifies as such in 1840.

Devil’s food cake is a real recipe for a chocolate cake, appearing in print for the first time in 1895, and probably named as it is quite different from angel cake.

Talk of the devil, said when someone seems to appear just as you’re talking about them, is first seen in print in the 1660s.

Devilment made its debut in 1771.

Devilled appears around 1800, it is a culinary term describing anything grilled with a hot condiment or sauce.

The devilfish was named in 1814, although it was used to describe a variety of marine creatures.

Devil-may-care first appears as a synonym for ‘reckless’ in 1828, but since 1815 had been used as an oath.

Daredevils made their first appearance in 1684, although then the reference was to those who showed little religious devotion. The modern use did not come into use until 1832.

Killdevil is first seen in 1670, when it referred to bad rum, although by early the following century it referred to one who sold his soul.

Tasmanian devils have been known as such since 1829; prior to that the locals called it pourinnah or taraba.

Devil-worship is recorded from 1719.

She-devil is seen from 1840.

Bedevil is first recorded in 1768.

Australian Territories

To define the names of the eight territories of Australia seems a little pointless, for they are obvious. Of course, this is because they were named very recently, albeit from words often coined very much earlier. Yet these are worthwhile looking at for, unlike most names which simply developed, these were chosen.

Western Australia - obviously the westernmost part of Australia, but why 'west'? It transpires this an abbreviation of the Proto-Indo-European compound wes-pero meaning 'evening'. Australia is an abbreviation of the Latin Terra Australis meaning simply 'southern land'.

Southern Australia - from the Proto-Germanic sunthaz or quite literally 'sun side'. For the origins of Australia see Western Australia above.

Northern Territory - 'north' comes from Proto-Indo-European ner meaning 'left' as that is where north lies when facing the rising sun. Note the same word is the root of Sanskrit narakah 'hell'. Territory is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ters 'to dry' and orium a suffix denoting place. Together this produced the Latin territorium meaning 'a place from which people are warned off'.

Australian Capital Territory - Named as such for it is home to Canberra, itself a greatly Anglicised version of an indigenous name. Tales of this being named Canberry because of the number of native Australian Cranberry bushes growing around here seems fanciful, at best. Possibly this represents an old Ngunnawal word meaning 'meeting place', although other sources point to the two mountains which dominate the skyline and thus the river running between them is the nganbira or 'hollow between a woman's breasts'. For the origins of Territory see Northern Territory above and for the origins of Australia see Western Australia, also above.

New South Wales - a word seen since Proto-Indo-European newo and thus has hardly changed in form or meaning for thousands of years. For the origins of south see South Australia above, while Wales is an Old English word, where wahl meant 'foreigner' or, more correctly, 'not Saxon'.

Queensland - named in 1859 after former monarch Queen Victoria.

Victoria - exactly as for Queensland above.

Tasmania - is named after the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, the first European to sight the island, doing so on November 24th 1642, although he called it Van Diemen's Land after the then Dutch governor-general of the East Indies. Abel's surname comes from a Germanic term meaning 'of great faith'.

What do we know of the names of regional names used by those living here for millennia prior to the arrival of the Europeans? Nothing, as while they had names for places they did not name vast areas as they simply did not need to.