larrikin
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Origin uncertain, possibly from *larick (Northern England) (an unattested variant of lark (“bird of the family Alaudidae; frolic or romp, some fun; prank; (East Suffolk, obsolete) unruly or wild person”, noun), from laverock (“(chiefly Northern England, Scotland, archaic) lark (bird)”); compare the variant forms lairock, larrock (chiefly Northern England), larick, larrick (chiefly Scotland)) + -kin (diminutive suffix). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that it is not clear why a word attested in the West Midlands (particularly Warwickshire and Worcestershire) and in Southwest England (Cornwall) would be derived from a word from Northern England.
Other suggestions include the following:
* The word is an Irish policeman’s pronunciation of larking (“engaging in careless adventure, frolicking; engaging in harmless pranking, sporting”), heard by a reporter in a Melbourne police court around 1870. The Oxford English Dictionary states there is no evidence of such an incident having been reported in the local newspapers of the time, and that in any case the word is attested earlier in Cornwall, England (since the early 19th century), and in Australia (at least from 1867: see the quotation).
* The first element of the word is from the name of an unknown Irishman named Larry.
The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun.
Affixes: -kin
Inflected forms:
form: larrikins
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: larikin
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: larrykin
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: more larrikin
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most larrikin
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: larikin
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: larrykin
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: A young, brash, and impertinent, and possibly violent, troublemaker, especially one who is a gang member; a hooligan.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
New-Zealand
historical
slang
examples: To keep me out of trouble I was sent to the wood-gang Cascade an out station about two miles from headquarters. On arriving at this place the following dialogue passed between me and the overseer: […] "A bit of a larrikin, T——, but it won't do here, you know." "No odds about that—what's the work?"
I wish to call your attention to the annoyance foot passengers are subject to by the ill-behaviour and disgraceful conduct exhibited by the larrikins, and also from men (who ought to know better), who infest the market reserve for the purpose of disposing of their wood, and who, until they do so, are the cause of the annoyance above referred to, which I suppose they would term amusing themselves. The rows and fights which they betimes indulge in, accompanied by some of the foulest and most blasphemous language, frequently to passers-by, and also the obstruction of the footpath, ought to attract the attention of those at whose hands the remedy lies.
How dare you talk to me like that, you young larrikin? Be off! or I'll send for a policeman.
The reputation of the Melbourne larrikin was world wide, the larrikin being the forerunner of the hooligan. Law and education had failed to reform these larrikins, and at last some of the citizens hit on the method of forming cadet corps, which had proved to be a conspicuous success, and larrikinism was now dead; the streets of Melbourne knew it no more as a real source of terror.
Flagstaff Hill [in Dunedin] is a hill without a flagstaff. […] Another man told me there never had been a staff on the hill; but if there had been, perhaps larrikins would have removed it. For larrikinism is one of the evils of New Zealand. Everywhere there one hears of the larrikin, or young hoodlum. Larrikins are an unorganized, mischievous fraternity. They are always despoiling or marring public or private property or making people the butt of coarse jokes and jeers. If something is stolen, "the larrikins took it"; if windows or park seats are broken, "the larrikins did it."
Come, sir, if he’s been cursed to hell, why don’t you bless him back again? What’s the good of your blessings if they can’t beat an Irish larrykin’s curse?
Then the Wet Season came with its extremes of heat and humidity and depraving influences on the minds of corruptible men. Even Oscar began to drink to excess. But he never bawled and pranced and wallowed in mud and came home in the arms of shouting larrikins.
He [Robert Percy Whitworth] was one of the earliest writers to turn the city larrikin to literary account in a variation of the picaresque conte, […]
gloss: A high-spirited person who playfully rebels against authority and conventional norms; a maverick or scamp.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
broadly
slang
examples: On all occasions Captain Smith's military character was good, though he was always a bit of a larrikin, and had a way of practical joking.
When [Frank] Browne's turn came, he went down like a true larrikin, giving cheek to the end. He spoke eloquently and at length about freedom of speech.
From the moment he had become opposition leader following the defeat of Lindsay Thompson's government in 1982, Jeff Kennett had been viewed as a political larrikin. […] To his defenders, Kennett was simply a brash and youthful leader seeking to energise the defeated Liberal Party and remove the "dead wood" from its ranks. Yet, to his many detractors, Jeff Kennett was shallow and reckless with a propensity for silly and embarrassing gaffes.
gloss: Exhibiting the behaviour or characteristics of a larrikin (noun sense).
pos: adj
tags: Australia
historical
slang
examples: Hoping my letter will have the desired effect of removing the larrikin nuisance especially in such a central portion of the town, […]
A similar larrikin streak sends louts into city parks to shy stones at monuments and chip noses of statuary.
[…] [Edward] Dyson turned to the city, and in Fact'ry 'Ands (1906) concentrated upon the larrikin class which had developed in Melbourne since [Robert Percy] Whitworth first noted it.
‘Larrikin gangs’ were a conspicuous feature of Sydney; and as a result of the selection acts, it was said, in the country perjury became a common-place in the lives of all.
Despite his skills as a singer and storyteller, Percy [Bird] sometimes felt like an outsider among the diggers, excluded by his own ideal and practice of moral manhood from the more larrikin masculinity that he perceived to be predominant.
gloss: Exhibiting the behaviour or characteristics of a larrikin (noun sense).
pos: adj
tags: Australia
broadly
slang
examples: Mungo [Wentworth] MacCallum is hardly typecast as the chronicler of the story of what has gone right and wrong about the business of immigration, regular and irregular, to this country but this most larrikin and cold-eyed of one-time Canberra chroniclers brings to this story all his wit and dryness and power of mind.
Another area was occupied by a group of guests with a clearly more larrikin style, and who very much belonged to the dominated fraction. […] The language used was rather different (more 'crude' in the second one), clothing style was different too (less trendy, and much cheaper clothes in the second group), as was appearance in general (heavier tattoos in the second group, more people with bad teeth, more of the men with the working-class goatee) and the interaction was generally more boisterous.
"We're all a bit embarrassed by him [Steve Irwin]. He puts that image of Australia to the world – that larrikin attitude – and we're not all like that," says Milo Laing, 27, the manager of an Australian-themed bar on Shaftesbury Avenue. "But at the end of the day he did a lot of work for charities and he employed 550 people in his zoo. He grabbed life by the horns."
Related words: donah
Derived words: larrikiness
larrikinish
larrikinism
larry
lary
Translations: