Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A hot north wind prevalent in southern Australia.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Orig., at Sydney, a cold and violent south or southwest wind, rising suddenly, and regularly preceded by a hot wind from the north; -- now usually called
southerly buster . It blew across the Brickfields, formerly so called, a district of Sydney, and carried clouds of dust into the city. - noun By confusion, a midsummer hot wind from the north.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Australia A hot, dry, dusty
wind of southern or central Australia.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From the location name Brickfield Hill, after the hill in Surry Hills (now in inner Sydney) from the direction of which a hot wind blew into Sydney in its early days. The term spread to Melbourne by circa 1850, and to central Australia by circa 1900, then to Western Australia.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word brickfielder.
Examples
-
Reports of the time describe the weather at this period as ‘variable —one day a regular brickfielder, and the next cold enough for overcoats’.
-
The northern brickfielder is almost invariably followed by a strong "southerly buster," cloudy and cool from the ocean.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" Various
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.