went walkabout

[Dave Wilton]

Like "Crocodile Dundee." I would think the term is familiar to most
Americans.


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Baker, John
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 12:08 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: went walkabout

        It's a pretty well-known term - I'm familiar with it, and I've
never been to Australia.  Bierbauer could have picked it up from a movie
or novel.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Victor
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 2:56 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: went walkabout

An expression that looks rather odd to me:

 >>"The worry is that this is going to come back as the governor who
_went walkabout_," says Bierbauer at University of South Carolina.
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/06/24/sanford-returns-home-t
o-impeachment-rumblings/


The problem is not the expression itself, but finding it in South
Carolina.

TheFreeDictionary lists it as Australian (as do other sources), with two
of the possible meaning for "to go walkabout" being "to be lost or
misplaced" and "to lose one's concentration", both likely applicable
here.

Of the first 30600 raw ghits, most of the front 30 refer to the same
Google blog post ("Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave."). The only
exception (aside from nonsense references) is this one.

 >>Seal that went walkabout [story title]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14119081.800-seal-that-went-walkab
out.html

The next non-Google-blog reference is also from the New Scientist: "How
Earth's poles went walkabout".

Of the next 60, most still refer to the same Google blog post, but there
is a sprinkling of others--most appear to be UK.

One slang dictionary lists "walkabout" as "an tour on foot by an
important person (such as a visiting member of the royal family,
politician or celebrity)". That's UK usage and does not apply here
either.

Most of the ghits for "go walkabout" (43600 raw) appear to be Australian
(although some Google suggestions might be referring to Africa). Of the
47700 raw ghits for "gone walkabout" most also appear to be Australian
references. The only exception that I thought I found:

 >>Gone Walkabout: A Jesuit makes his way down
under.http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=1172
3

So this one is, again, Australian.

The only thing left to do is to look up Charles Bierbauer ("dean of the
University of South Carolina's communication department and a former
political reporter"). Bierbauer was a 20-year correspondent for CNN,
covering the span from Reagan to Clinton, but he was born in Allentown,
PA. There seems to be no reason why he would have picked up Australian
slang.

So far, this remains a mystery to me. Any comments?

VS-)

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