Fossicking Fool, The

DESCRIPTION: "I used to think if I sought for gold I'd have a life of fun." "The life in fact appeared to be a never-ending grind." After much hard work, he finds only three ounces of gold, which barely paid his expenses. It's only fun AFTER you strike it rich
AUTHOR: Words: J. R. Sinclair
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: mining gold hardtimes food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 48-49, "The Fossicking Fool" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [159 words]: According to Elizabeth and Harry Orsman, The New Zealand Dictionary, 1994; second edition 1995 (I use the 2003 New House Publishers paperback), p. 101, the primary meaning of the verb "fossick" comes from gold mining: "Also fossick about. To search unsystematically for small amounts of alluvial gold. b. Also fossick about, fossick around. To search about, to rummage for something other than alluvial gold; to potter about."
Similarly Bruce Moore, Gold! Gold! Gold! A Dictionary of the Nineteenth-century Australian Gold Rushes, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 53, "fossick 1 To search for gold on the surface, sometimes in a desultory or unsystematic way, and sometimes on an abandoned claim or washing place; to prise out bits of gold with a knife etc.... 2 To steal gold from other diggers, especially from an unattended claim."
Thus a fossicker is generally one who searches for gold without really wanting to do the work of digging. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Clev048

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