PHRASE DOCK IT FULL

This idiom is derived from acid test which is a test for gold or other precious metal, usually using nitric acid. to be successful in the exertion of such pressure. To exert a pressure that is difficult to resist to exert such pressure on (a person, etc.), to pressure (someone) for a favour etc. Hence 2, noun A particularly sterile piece of academic writing.' The evidence has become less frequent in recent years.ġ993 Age (Melbourne) 24 December: The way such festivals bring together writers, publishers and accas, making them all accountable to the reader - the audience - gives them real value.

PHRASE DOCK IT FULL

The editor of Meanjin, Jim Davidson, adds a footnote: 'acca (slightly derogatory) 1, noun An academic rather than an intellectual, particularly adept at manipulating trendiologies, usually with full scholarly apparatus.

The abbreviation first appears in Meanjin (Melbourne, 1977), where Canberra historian Ken Inglis has an article titled 'Accas and Ockers: Australia's New Dictionaries'. We trust that Edmund Weiner and John Simpson did not take a citation, since the Australian abbreviation of academic is not acco but acca (sometimes spelt acker). I hoped, after I left, they would enter it on one of their little slips and add it to their gigantic compost heap - a candidate for admission to the next edition. I asked if they were familiar with the Oz usage 'acco', meaning 'academic'. But not all -o words were Australian, said Simpson : eg 'aggro' and 'cheapo'. Australians used the -o suffix a lot, he reflected. They will not only be docked of their half-pay, but will run great hazard of being put off with regard to a great share of their other pay.Michael Davie in 'Going from A to Z forever' (an article on the 2nd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary), Age, Saturday Extra, 1 April 1989, writes of his visit to the dictionary section of Oxford University Press:īefore I left, Weiner said he remembered how baffled he had been the first time he heard an Australian talk about the 'arvo'. An early example of it is found in the records of one of the founding fathers of the USA - The Writings of James Madison: 1783-1787: That usage dates from the late 18th century. This use of 'dock' has nothing to do with ships.ĭocking was a generally used term meaning 'cut short' for many centuries before it began to be specifically associated with the withholding of payment. [ His hair was cut round even with his ears His heer was by his erys ful round yshorn That form of the word dates back to at least the 14th century, when it was used by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Reeve's Tale, from The General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, circa 1386: That relates to the Old English 'dock' - 'to cut short, particularly of the hair or tail of an animal' and that practise is still commonplace in the dog and horse breeding communities. The docking of pay is altogether different. That meaning of docking is 'join together, by bringing into an anchorage or resting place'. Ships may be docked and these days so may spacecraft and even computers and phones. What's the origin of the phrase 'Dock your pay'? Money and wealth What's the meaning of the phrase 'Dock your pay'?.

Phrase dock it