cts refer to their
appearance, and the usual synthesis is noun + adjective; the
word may be worn down at either end, and the meaning lost to
the native mind.

"A number of the distinct names for <i>kangaroo</i> show a
relation to words meaning respectively <i>nose, leg, big</i>,
<i>long</i>, either with noun and adjective to combination or
one or other omitted.

"The word <i>kangaroo</i> is probably analysable into <i>ka</i>
or <i>kang</i>, <i>nose</i> (or <i>head</i>), and <i>goora</i>,
<i>long</i>, both words or local equivalents being widely
current."

(2) Wild young cattle (a special use)--

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.
p. 290:

"A stockyard under six feet high will be leaped by some of
these kangaroos (as we term them) with the most perfect ease,
and it requires to be as stout as it is high to resist their
rushes against it."

(3) Used playfully, and as a nickname for persons and things
Australian. An Australian boy at an English school is
frequently called "Kangaroo." It is a Stock Exchange nickname
for shares in Western Australian gold-mining companies.

1896. `Nineteenth Century' (Nov.), p. 711:

"To the 80,000,000 Westralian mining shares now in existence
the Stock Exchange has long since conceded a special `market';
and it has even conferred upon these stocks a nickname--the
surest indication of importance and popularity. And that
`Kangaroos,' as they were fondly called, could boast of
importance and popularity nobody would dare to gainsay."

(4) A kind of chair, apparently from the shape.

1834. Miss Edgeworth, `Helen,' c. xvi. (`Century'):

"It was neither a lounger nor a dormeuse, nor a Cooper, nor a
Nelson, nor a Kangaroo: a chair without a name would never do;
in all things fashionable a name is more than half. Such a
happy name as Kangaroo Lady Cecilia despaired of finding."

<hw>Kangarooade</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Kangaroo hunt; nonce word.
See quotation.

1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings among the Gum Trees,'
p. 86:

"The Kangarooade--in three Spirts."
[Title of a poem.]

<hw>Kangaroo-Apple</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian and Tasmanian
fruit, <i>Solanum aviculare</i>, Forst., <i>N.O.
Solanaceae</i>. The name is also applied to <i>S. vescum</i>,
called the <i>Gunyang</i> (q.v.). In New Zealand, the fruit is
called <i>Poroporo</i> (q.v.).

1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual, p. 133:

`<i>Solanum laciniatum</i>, the kangaroo-apple, resem