gin burglar

English

Etymology

From gin (“Australian aboriginal woman”) + burglar.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

gin burglar (plural gin burglars)

1. (Australia, slang) A white man who sexually exploits aboriginal women.
   • 1958, William Edward Harney, Content to Lie in the Sun‎^[1], page 46:

     “The down-troddens′ day will come soon, then you ‘gin burglars’ will have to respect the rights of the weak,” retorted the other as he moved away to the “Rib-binders” reply. “Yes, and that day, both you and I, my friend, will have to pay more for the ‘girls’ than we do today.”

   • 1964, Keith Willey, Eaters of the Lotus‎^[2], page 150:

     For decades now the 38,000 square miles aboriginal reserve has been sacrosanct from white intrusion. Gin burglars who sneak in looking for lubras are prosecuted.

   • 1971, K. Willey, Boss Drover, quoted in 1990, R. M. W. Dixon, Australian Aboriginal Words, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 167,

     Now and then you would meet fellows who ... would go from station to station, scrounging feeds and hanging about the blacks′ camp looking for girls. They were known as combos, murlongers, or gin burglars.

   • 1992, Kay Saunders, Raymond Evans, Gender Relations in Australia: Domination and Negotiation, page 36:

     ‘Of course every man in the country was doing the same thing, but there was plenty of hypocrisy among the station people. The manager would refer to “combos” and “gin burglars” as though they were social outcasts. But let his wife go away for a while, or even turn her back, and he was down to the blacks′ camp in no time’ (Willey 1971:46).

Synonyms

• gin jockey

Anagrams

• burglaring