Jackarooesse

From Fresh Dictionary

English

Noun

Jackarooesse (plural Jackarooesses)

1. ((Australia{{#if:|, {{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}{{#if:|, {{{4}}}{{#if:|, {{{5}}}{{#if:|, {{{6}}}{{#if:|, {{{7}}}{{#if:|, {{{8}}}{{#if:|, {{{9}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}})) ((obsolete{{#if:|, {{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}{{#if:|, {{{4}}}{{#if:|, {{{5}}}{{#if:|, {{{6}}}{{#if:|, {{{7}}}{{#if:|, {{{8}}}{{#if:|, {{{9}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}})) A woman jackaroo. (Today the term jillaroo is usual.)

   1910: These, and a big bucket-handled frying-pan and a few rusty convict-time arms on the slab walls, were mostly to amuse jackaroos and jackarooesses, and let them think they were getting into the Australian-dontcherknow at last. — Henry Lawson story The Exciseman, published in The Rising of the Court and Other Sketches in Prose and Verse (at Project Gutenberg).

Notes

Only the plural appears in Lawson. Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language, second edition, 1966, in the index on page 482 gives the singular as "-esse" rather than "-ess".