tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post837096648610019625..comments2024-02-11T19:28:27.997+11:00Comments on Personal Reflections: Meaning of Australian English - around the trapsJim Belshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-34650233818615099482023-05-30T20:21:00.304+10:002023-05-30T20:21:00.304+10:00Some nice folk etymologies here however the phrase...Some nice folk etymologies here however the phrase "around the traps" doesn't originate in Aus but in the jazz world of early 20th century America. For centuries percussionists played a single instrument such as a side drum, cymbals or bass drum. Drummers in the jazz era combined these with extra "contraptions" such as tom-toms and cowbells creating what we now call a drum kit or trap kit. This enabled the introduction of the drum roll or "playing around the traps". Ask any jazz drummer.Flotsamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-18473231465469762192021-04-23T05:55:11.504+10:002021-04-23T05:55:11.504+10:00I would suggest that this phrase does relate to th...I would suggest that this phrase does relate to the days where people trapped animals for a living, beaver for example in the USA or rabbits in Australia. Each trapper had their own territory which they trapped over. These areas often overlapped with your neighbouring trapper,. So to say see you around the traps literally means I will see you when our paths converge on our various trapping runs.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09956021580648315573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-55955799034725312382010-03-28T23:21:24.151+11:002010-03-28T23:21:24.151+11:00As a young man who augmented his pocket money by t...As a young man who augmented his pocket money by trapping rabbits, I associate with this phrase. I certainly went out to check my traps to see what I had caught. <br /><br />As an eight or nine year old, I think I caught my aged aunt Helen off guard when I asked her to put her foot on a specific spot so as to release my finger which I had inadvertently caught in my own trap! <br /><br />I digress.<br /><br />When I checked my traps, they were always in my "usual haunts" and if I returned to Glenroy today, I could show go straight to the warrens of my childhood. Hopefully they are still not there!<br /><br /><br />As a side, I sold my rabbits each Saturday Morning to a Rabbito who lived in a two story freestanding terrace in Uralla, which, when my father was born in 1911, moonlighted as a Hospital. Each year as we pass it, I point it out to his Grand Daughters whom he predeceased by some 15 years.<br /><br /><br />cheers<br />JamieAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com