A BONZER CONUNDRUM

Frederick Ludowyk

BONZER (also BONZA): noun something (or someone) which excites admiration by being outstandingly good of its kind. adjective outstandingly good. adverb wonderfully, splendidly.

In the first decade of the twentieth century a number of seemingly related words make their appearance in Australian English-- bonzer, bontosher, bontoger, bonsterina, bosker, boshter, etc. They all mean much the same thing, and their meaning is covered by the definition of bonzer above. In spite of the similarities among these words, and their recorded emergence at much the same time into Australian speech, lexicographers have argued that bonzer developed independently from the others. S.J. Baker, for instance (The Australian Language, 1966, p. 131), cites a Bulletin correspondent from 1906 who claims that boshter had been current for about ten years, and from this concludes that boshter dated back to the mid-1890s. Baker comments:

Since the first printed example of bonzer is not to be found until 1904 we are left to surmise that this term was either a good deal less popular than boshter and bosker at the beginning of this century, or that it arrived subsequent to them. If the latter is correct, then boshter and bosker are not variants of bonzer but independent terms, which merely have similarity in use and sound.

This demonstrates the danger in matters lexicographical of relying on hearsay evidence rather than on printed evidence. If back in 1906 the Bulletin had asked its readers how long bonzer had been around, it may well have received the same hearsay evidence. But when we look at the real evidence, the printed evidence, we find that boshter precedes bonzer by only one year. A reconsideration of the evidence confirms my earlier statement that all of these terms really do appear at about the same time. Moreover, in the early evidence they are often used interchangeably, and as late as 1911 E. Dyson in Benno writes: ' "Oh, a bonzer, a bonzer, a boshter, a bontoshter!" screamed our Christian brother'.

Much of the early evidence for the terms appears in three passages in the Bulletin in 1904 . These are the passages:

14 April. 'Jimmy S': Re that bulwark of Austral Slanguage--'Bonster'. It is possibly a corruption of 'born star'. There are several additions, one contortion and one abbreviation, the usage of which is, however, governed by arbitrary definitions. A 'fair bonus' is a real trier, a fair goer, or a bit of a don; a bonser or bonster is comparatively superior to a bons; and a bontosher is a real slasher, a fair hummer, virtually a past master. A bonsterina is a female bonster, but no female has yet achieved the dignity of a bontosherina.

5 May. 'William L.': 'Jimmy S.' is on the wrong track. 'Bonster' is a corruption of Bontojer, pronounced Bontodger; and Bontojer is a corruption of two French words bon and toujours --'always good'.

30 June. 'McG.' Re the word 'Bonster' (B. 14/4/04). It may be a corruption of 'born star', but I should say not, as Australian slang, though very inclusive in its meaning, is seldom synthetic. I should derive the word from the Spanish 'bonanzo' or 'bonanza', if from any word at all. The goldfields brought a number of Spanish words across from California and Mexico, while the port trade of Australia brings the foreign sailor constantly. The foreign sailor is best known in the class that develops 'slanguage'. He corrupts English words in a mistaken use and malpronunciation [i.e. mispronunciation ] of them, and the Australian push-ite does the same with his words. From this, as a partial source, 'slanguage' grows. On the other hand, I think a large number of such words are of spontaneous growth, some of them imitatively so. (This word 'bonster' may be the latter, and simply a spontaneous parallel of 'monster', meaning 'not hideous' but 'great', 'fine'. and, in a way, 'admirable'.)

The Australian National Dictionary illustrates bontosher with parts of the Bulletin passages from 14 April and 15 May: 'A bontosher is a real slasher, a fair hummer, virtually a past master ... but no female has yet achieved the dignity of a bontosherina'; ' "Bonster" is a corruption of Bontojer, pronounced Bontodger; and Bontojer is a corruption of two French words bon and toujours --"always good" '. Bonzer is illustrated by another part of the 14 April letter: ' Re that bulwark of Austral Slanguage "Bonster"... A bonser or bonster is comparatively superior to a bons'. The 30 June letter is not used in AND, and the possible connection with bonanza, although mentioned in the etymology for bonzer, is noted in the citations only in a 1908 entry for bontosher from the Australian Magazine : 'Bonanza was another Californian term brought over, but the Australian soon turned it into bonzer, and he has been varying it ever since till we have bosker, boshter and bontoger'. Two passages in the Bulletin in 1906 enforce the notion that boshter and bosker are variants of the same term: 22 November 'What is known here [i.e. in Victoria] as boshter is called bosker in Sydney. We never hear of a bosker here'; 20 December 'Boshter is as common as bosker--perhaps even more so--in Sydney'.

Among all of this information there are two possible 'non-English' origins, from French and Spanish. How convincing are they? I have a strong suspicion that the French bon toujours theory is a bonzer red herring. It is spelt out in the May 1904 Bulletin letter, and revived briefly in the 1908 Australian Magazine citation, but there is no other evidence for bontojer . In any case it is difficult to imagine under what historical circumstances Australian English might have borrowed a French word or expression in the first decade of the twentieth century. A few years later, in the context of the First World War, Australian soldiers borrowed vin blanc from the French, and transformed it into plonk . But that was a very different matter, for the borrowing can be explained by the particular historical circumstances. And for similar reasons it is difficult to believe that Australian English borrowed and altered French bon 'good'. The Spanish bonanza seems more plausible, since in this case the claim is that it is borrowed via US English. Bonanza meant literally 'fair weather; prosperity' (ultimately from Latin bonus 'good', and therefore the same word as French bon), and in the United States it was applied to prosperity or success in mining. This sense, however, does not appear in the US until the 1870s, so it is unlikely that it was brought to Australia by Californian miners in the 1850s. Even so, it could be a later import from the United States. From general appearance and sense it seems possible to derive bonzer from bonanza . My main worry is that in all the early records the form bonzer alternates with forms such as boshter and bosker . Bonzer ultimately triumphs, and all the other forms disappear from Australian English, but the victory for bonzer does not mean a corresponding victory for bonanza .

The publication of H.W. Orsman's The Dictionary of New Zealand English in 1997 enabled us to reconsider the evidence. The interesting feature here is that while bonzer appears in New Zealand at about the same time as in Australia, in New Zealand there is no evidence of the -z- spelling or pronunciation (with one exception) until 1937. Until then, the word is spelt bonser or bonsor :

1906 : 'Wallace made one "bonsor" shot at goal from a difficult angle' (Truth, 25 Aug. p. 3); 1906 : 'America said she was a real boncer' (A. Picard, Some Ups and Downs in New Zealand and Australia, p. 26); 1910 : 'Their joy [at seeing old-fashioned wing-forwards] was like the thrill of the alleged Spaniard, who watched a game in the heyday of "wingerism": "Caramba! eet ees splendida! Eet ees to me your bonsa or bosca' (L.S. Fanning, Players and Slayers, p. 13); 1916 : 'The boys had fixed to give us a boncer welcome, but ... in the words of our informant, "they blued their cheques, got shikkared and the show was bust up"' ('Anzac', On the Anzac Trail; being Extracts from the Diary of a New Zealand Sapper, p. 27); 1917 : 'Bonser little nurse goes past; comes to light with lollies an' tips a cove a smile' (Tiki Talk, p. 35).

To some extent this contrasts with the Australian evidence. All the early Australian citations of the word as an attributive adjective meaning 'surpassingly good' use the spellings bonzer or bonza ; that is, they spell the words with a -z- and thus the similarity to bonanza is kept alive:

1906 : 'There's allers bits o' jobs about ther Farm; Doin' Polly, breakin' metal, keeps a bloke in bonza fettle' (Bulletin, Sydney, 5 July, p. 17); 1908 : 'Molross took a bonza mark on the wing, and from a pass Rait scored a sixer amidst great applause' (Clipper, Hobart, 19 Sept., p. 2); 1910 : 'Look, we'll 'ave real bonzer times goin' out tergether' (L. Esson, Three Short Plays, (1911), p. 19); 1913 : 'The bonzer smell o' flow'rs is on the breeze' (C.J. Dennis, Backblock Ballads, p. 85).

When used as a noun, however, in Australia the -z- spelling alternates with an - s- spelling:

1904 : ' Re that bulwark of Austral Slanguage--"Bonster".... A bonser or bonster is comparatively superior to a bons' (Bulletin, Sydney, 14 Apr. p. 29); 1904 : 'King Ned is a "bonser" (Truth, Sydney, 28 Aug. p. 1); 1906 : 'There is a bonza, a sort of improvement on the boshter' (Bulletin, Sydney, 22 Nov. p. 17); 1908 : 'The banquet was a bonza, a rare recherche feed' ('Dryblower' (E.G. Murphy), Jarrahland Jingles, p. 164); 1914 : 'Blime, th' car's a bonser; travel! why, she bloomin' well flies' (A. Wright, In the Last Stride, p. 14); 1915 : 'The parson's as good as 'e looks if 'e ain't better; 'e's a bonzer' (G. Sargant, The Sweet Heart of the Bush, p. 45); 1918 : 'Cherry--in the language of the boys of the village ... was a "bonser"' (A. Wright, Over the Odds, p. 11).

In the light of the New Zealand evidence, these early Australian variations might lead us to the conclusion that while the later stabilisation of the -z- spelling perhaps owes something to the influence of the American bonanza, the original form may in fact have been pronounced with an -s-, and that therefore we should be looking not at a corruption of the American bonanza or the French bon, but at an entirely original form bonser .

Is there such a word anywhere else? Harry Orsman suggests that there is. His etymological note at bonzer says: 'Possibly from British dialect bouncer anything very large of its kind; itself possibly ultimately from British dialect bonce, boncer var. bounce, bouncer a very large marble (originally used for "bouncing" or playing checkstones, a kind of knucklebones)'. The English Dialect Dictionary gives bonce from Hampshire, Dorset, and Somerset with the meaning 'a very large marble, a stone ball', with Hampshire also recording the variant boncer . Such a large marble was used to strike other marbles from the ring. Another variant spelling, bouncer, with the same meaning, is recorded from Yorkshire. The Dictionary of American Regional English records one example of bonce in the sense 'a large marble' from 1955. There is some evidence that this sense existed in Australia, but at a much earlier time, at the time our bonzer was in the process of developing. A passage in the Bulletin in December 1908 reads: 'It was Sam's eye-drop taw! ... "Me only boshter taw!" he roared'. 'Taw', of course, is a word for 'marble'. At a much later date, Norman Lindsay in Saturdee (1933), p. 57, writes: 'With a grief-stricken howl of "Me only boshter taw", he leaped for Bulljo'. In both cases I believe the boshter taw is the large marble that is elsewhere called a boncer or bouncer, further evidence that boshter, bosker, and bonzer all derive from the same source in bonser . The extended meaning of bo(u)ncer, 'anything very large of its kind' is recorded in a number of dialects. From Lincolnshire in 1877 we are told that 'A fine child, a large turnip, or an astounding lie are all bouncers'. In the 1908 passage from the Australian Magazine quoted above, there is a remarkably similar explanation for the range of contexts in which bosker can appear: 'You will hear a young Australian, perhaps, all in the one conversation, say that a certain girl is a bosker, a football hero is a bosker, a murderer is a bosker, a storm is a bosker, and a calm placid evening is a bosker'.

G.A. Wilkes in the second edition (1985) of his A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms labels bonzer ' obsolescent ', although there was no such label in the first edition (1978). Given the citation evidence we have at the Australian National Dictionary Centre, I am delighted to report that the word is still very much alive. The following are recent sightings of this irreplaceable word:

1999 A safe and happy Christmas and a bonza New Year to all those who patrol our beaches (Manly Daily 18 Dec. p. 133). 1999 Make the effort to get up really early and arrive at the Kiosk in time for a 'bonza brekkie'--definitely worth the effort (Northern Beaches Weekender 19 Feb. p.34). 1999 Anne was, if not exactly beautiful, very nice looking and, according to those who made early contact with her, a bonzer girl into the bargain (T. Parsons The Call of the High Country p. 11). 2002 I visited a bonzer little crew of year 5 and year 6 students (Hansard: Queensland Legislative Assembly 21 Feb. p. 265). 2002 The English cricket team has been on the crest of a slump for a full eight Ashes series now, and you can't blame us for riding that wave like a bottler bonzer beauty off Bondi (Age, Melbourne, 4 Dec.)

I must admit, however, that bonzer is not a word used greatly by the younger generation, who are more likely to describe a party as 'awesome' rather than 'bonzer'.

Yet even if it eventually disappears from Australian English, bonzer/bonza will live on in two contexts. Most Australians are unaware that the term bonzer is used worldwide for a kind of surfboard. The Surfin'ary: A Dictionary of Surfing Terms and Surfspeak (2001) explains: ' bonzer n. A type of surfboard with double concaves shaped into the tail area that can be used in conjunction with a multitude of templates and bottom contours. The design also features two short, angled ventral fins and a short-raked center fin placed at the outside edge of the concave. The term "bonzer", which is equivalent for "bitchin" in Australia, was adopted by the Campbell Brothers of Southern California in the 1970s for their five-fin surfboard'. Within Australia, bonza is the name not of a surfboard but of a kind of sweet eating apple originating at Batlow in New South Wales: 1998 : 'Fresh Crisp Batlow Bonza Apples 15 for Only $1.99' (Manly Daily, 20 June 15/3).

A bonzer word, bonzer. It can express one's admiration for just about anything. The party was a bonzer; met a bonzer bloke at the pub; drought's broken at last--she's coming down bonzer. Even Queen Elizabeth II can be bonzer (if one wishes--though the mind boggles a bit at the thought): 1995 : 'Arise Elizabeth, a bonzer sheila.... A laterally-thought solution to the republic: "why doesn't Keating just grant dual citizenship to the Queen and the royal family" ' (Age, Melbourne, 11 June p. 28)--God forbid! The demise of bonzer, however, would be a great loss to Australian English.