| 释义 |
▪ I. boomerang, n.|ˈbuːməræŋ|
Also 8–9 bomarang, bomerang, boomering.
[Adoption or modification of the native name in a lang. of the aborigines of N. S. Wales.
Collins (Judge Advocate of the colony when founded in 1788) collected a short vocabulary of Port Jackson words, in which wo-mur-rāng occurs among ‘names of clubs’. (He has also wo-mer-ra the throwing stick, which some later writers erroneously identify with the boomerang.) In a short vocabulary of the extinct language of George's River, Botany Bay, printed by Ridley, Kámilarói 103, are womrā ‘throwing stick for spear’, būmarin ‘boomerang’. Boomerang was given as ‘the Port Jackson term’ by Capt. King in 1827; its exact relation to wo-mur-rāng and būmarin, and the relations of these to each other can perhaps not now be determined. A very graphic account of the use of the weapon (described as ‘a bent, edged waddy resembling slightly a Turkish scimitar’) is in the Sydney Gazette of 23 Dec. 1804: the name boomerang has not been found in that paper up to 1823.]
1. An Australian missile weapon: a curved piece of hard wood from two to three feet long, with a sharp edge along the convexity of the curve. It is so made as to describe complex curves in its flight, and can be thrown so as to hit an object in a different direction from that of projection, or so as to return to or beyond the starting-point.
[1798Collins Acct. N. S. Wales, Vocab. ‘names of Spears and other instruments’, Can-ni-cull, Car-ru-wāng, Wom⁓ur-rāng, names of clubs.] 1827Capt. King Narr. Surv. Coasts Austral. I. 355 Boomerang is the Port Jackson term for this weapon, and may be retained for want of a more descriptive name. 1830Mechanic's Mag. XIII. 430 Captain Cook, when at Botany Bay, having seen the bomarang, concluded that it was a wooden sword. 1830Proc. R. Geog. Soc. I. 27 The curl or boomering is seldom used as a weapon [in W. Australia]. 1834L. E. Threlkeld Austral. Gram., Vocab. Hunter Riv. Tur-ru-ma, an instrument of war, called by Europeans Boomering of a half-moon shape, which, when thrown..returns forming a circle in its orbit from and to the thrower. 1834G. Bennett Wand. N. S. Wales, &c. 116 The males were armed with spears, clubs, and the ‘womera’ or ‘bomerang’. 1838S. Ferguson in Trans. R. Irish Acad. XIX. 22 (paper), On the Antiquity of the Kiliee or Boomerang. 1871Tylor Prim. Cult. I. 60 The Australian boomerang has been claimed as derived from some hypothetical high culture.
fig.1845Holmes Modest Req. Poems (1884) 42 Like the strange missile which the Australian throws, Your verbal boomerang slaps you on the nose. 1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 219 The boomerang of argument, which one throws in the opposite direction of what he means to hit.
2. attrib. and Comb.; esp. fig. (with reference to its action in returning to the thrower).
1892Daily News 30 June 5/5 It is..quite a boomerang business. Tories built the fort in anticipation of the battle of 1880, and to-day the Liberals hold it. 1898Ibid. 21 Apr. 5/2 Rawson, the Australian boomerang thrower, will take part. 1949C. Fry Lady's not for Burning ii. 58 Boomerang rages and lunacies. 1955Times 20 May 10/6 The..agitation..may ultimately have a boomerang effect on the party itself. 1968Daily Tel. 16 Dec. 1/8 Russia's unmanned Zond 5 and 6 made successful ‘boomerang’ flights round the moon.
▪ II. boomerang, v.|ˈbuːməræŋ|
[f. the n.]
intr. To throw a boomerang; to fly back to the starting-point, after the manner of a boomerang when thrown; also fig. Also with advbs. off, on. So ˈboomeranging vbl. n.
1880J. B. Stephens Misc. Poems 26 War shouts and universal boomeranging. 1899Longman's Mag. XXXIII. 475 Boomeranging is dangerous for on-lookers, till the thrower is a perfect master of his weapon. 1900H. Lawson On Track 59 The horse..boomeranged off again and broke away through the scrub. 1936Discovery Apr. 125/2 It is easily possible for a deflecting wind to cause a shot to boomerang. 1943H. Pearson Conan Doyle iii. 39 If your magnet is so strong as all that, you would have your own broadside boomeranging back upon you. 1965Listener 24 June 928/1 But the psychologically dangerous stratagem soon boomeranged. |
