went walkabout (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

My God! Has so much time passed? Back in the 'Seventies, Walkabout was
possibly the biggest Australian movie ever released in the U.S. It
made the director's career, though, as fate would have it, the careers
of the stars went nowhere in particular. The last that I've heard of
Jenny Agutter that I can remember was a small book of her photographic
work that I came across in Widener. I don't remember the year. It was
probably some time in the 'Eighties.

I saw the Aborigine boy in a later Australian movie, when he was fat
and forty and fully dressed, some time in the 'Nineties, on the IFC.
As far as I know, the little brother must have vanished from the face
of the earth, though he could have grown up to be any of a number of
Australian actors, for all that I know.

Walkabout was resurrected on the IFC in the 'Nineties. I've seen it
possibly thirty times, over the past quarter-century.

Once was too much for Crocodile Dundee. I don't recall hearing
"walkabout" in the dialogue, but I saw the movie on TV and dozed my
way through it. I could easily have missed the reference.

-Wilson

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 5:23 PM, Mullins, Bill
AMRDEC<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: went walkabout (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> I think I learned it from the movie "Crocodile Dundee". Â Anyone who has
> seen the picture would be familiar with it.
>
> Also, Jenny Agutter was in a movie called "Walkabout", set in Australia.
> Don't know how big a release it had in the U.S.
>
>
>>
>> > From: "John Baker" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> > Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 3:07:36 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada
>> Eastern
>> > Subject: Re: went walkabout
>> >
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>> > Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: went walkabout
>> >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>> >
>> > Â  Â  Â  Â  It's a pretty well-known term - I'm familiar with it, and
>> > I've
>> > never been to Australia. Â 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:
>> >
>> > Â >>"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.
>> >
>> > Â >>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:
>> >
>> > Â >>Gone Walkabout: A Jesuit makes his way down
>> >
>>
> under.http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=117
>> 2
>> > 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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>>
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> Caveats: NONE
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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