lubra

See also: lúbra

English

Etymology

Derived from the word for wife or woman in the Nuenonne language, an Indigenous language of southern Tasmania.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈluːbɹə/

Noun

lubra (plural lubras)

1. (Australia, now racially offensive, ethnic slur) A female Aboriginal Australian.
   • 1829, George Augustus Robinson, Friendly Mission, page 61:

     At about 100 yards distant I saw a large fire and it immediaterly occurred to me that his wife was dead and that the fire was the funeral pile of his deceased wife. I asked him where his lubra was and he said lubra logerna unee (dead in the fire).

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 301:

     Mr. Foelsche's reports show how, at Port Essington, the men will barter their lubras, and everything they possess, for square gin; and, in the south, restrictions have had to be placed upon the publicans to prevent them selling drink to the few natives that remain.

   • 1988, Tom Cole, Hell West and Crooked:

     We went into the house and Roy called out, “Alice, boil ’im billy, make some tea,” and a few minutes later a comely young lubra appeared, a huge teapot in one hand and a plate with a big brownie on it.

   • 2001, Robert Denis Whittle, One Skin For An Overlander, page 166:

     The lubras were standing up now, in a tight little circle, with their fighting sticks raised. There was another burst of argument and then first one lubra, then another struck her opponent a blow on the head.

   • 2003, Les Hughes, Henry Mundy: A Young Australian Pioneer, page 94:

     As I have mentioned before, Lubra Creek derived its name from a wanton slaughter of several lubras by an enraged band of squatters whose sheep had been stolen, slaughtered and eaten by the blacks. It was usual when anything of that kind happened to band together for the squatter, and hunt for the delinquents and shoot down the first blacks they caught innocent or guilty. In the case of the Lubra Creek tragedy, it appears they could not drop across any black fellows and finding the lubras hidden in the shrub, ruthlessly shot them down.

Anagrams

• ablur