On Instapundit, two matters of local interest to have come up together one after the other. First this under the heading, “THAT’S NOT AN EXTREME SPORT, THIS IS AN EXTREME SPORT: [video] New Extreme Sport Of Flyboarding Takes Off In Australia” which then links to this from The Telegraph in the UK:
Merely a day in the life of a typical Australian, as we would all know.
But then there’s this which came next (which means, as found on the page, it now comes before the above):
ANSWERING THE VITAL QUESTIONS: The Oxford English Dictionary wants to know whether Prince Philip is responsible for coining the phrase ‘blue-arsed fly’.
The text with the story:
Prince Philip is known for his blunt talk and colourful turns of phrase.
Now the Oxford English Dictionary wants to know whether the British royal consort is responsible for coining a memorable entomological term.
Editors say Philip uttered the first recorded usage of “blue-arsed fly” in 1970, telling a photographer he’d been “running around like a blue-arsed fly”.
The dictionary is appealing to readers to submit earlier uses of the term. It notes the variant ‘blue-assed fly’ was first recorded in 1932.
My Dinkum Dictionary naturally shows it (with the correct spelling) but was published in 1988. It is truly an Aussie phrase, but how far can we go back? We need to help out our Pommy friends at Oxford. Anyone have a citation before 1932?
Personal obs: blue arsed blowies are much rarer than green arsed blowies hereabouts on NSW north coast. Blue arsed blowies rule after brown arsed blowies in NZ. The trout fly literature never lies.
But praise be ….the scarab beetle, whose dietary preferences have nearly eliminated the small black bush fly from the east coast, are god’s gift.
Alfonso
7 Oct 12 at 5:44 pm
Hmm, thought it might be in John O’Grady’s Aussie English…
ar
7 Oct 12 at 6:00 pm
More info about the OED blue-arsed fly appeal here:
http://public.oed.com/appeals/blue-arsed-fly/
Includes a video by a very comely lexicographer.
Dangph
7 Oct 12 at 6:36 pm
I was always of the belief that ‘ass’ was American and ‘arse’ was Australian ?
Helen Armstrong
7 Oct 12 at 7:24 pm
Running around like a blue-arsed fly was a very common expression in New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s. Phil the Greek must have picked it up there along with pavlova
GerardB
7 Oct 12 at 10:43 pm
I dunno what’s so ‘extreme’ about flyboarding.
Sure it looks way cool, and it would be fun for about the first 15 minutes or so, but I imagine you’d get pretty bored with it after that. You can only go up as high as the hose (8m or so?), and splash in the water a bit.
It’s hardly as dangerous as say BASE jumping or caving. pretty expnsive bit of kit for something you’d get sick of, too.
papachango
8 Oct 12 at 10:15 am
The expression gets an entry in Macquarie’s 1984 “Aussie Talk” FWIW
PeterTB
8 Oct 12 at 6:33 pm