shiralee

Signification (Anglais)

1. (uncommon) Burden; load.
2. (Australia, colloquial, dated, uncommon) Burden; load.

Synonymes

load

Traductions

appesantimento

carga

Étymologie (Anglais)

First attested in print 1892. Later popularised through its use in the title of D'Arcy Niland′s 1955 novel The Shiralee (and two film adaptations, in 1957 and 1987)). Its meaning is no longer well known.
Sometimes claimed to be from an (unidentified) Australian Aboriginal language.
Alternatively, an anglicisation of Irish tiarálaí (“itinerant roustabout”) which came to be applied to his swag or matilda, and later (inspired by Niland's novel) to mean not only a physical burden but also a psychological one.