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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

must have killed a Chinaman en · X

Pronunciation

Etymology

Referring to a putative, and otherwise unrecorded, Anglo-Australian superstition that killing a Chinese person brought about bad luck.

Meanings

  1. (Australia, dated, offensive) A jocular explanation for bad luck.
    • It appeared as though someone in the Battalion must have killed a Chinaman, as the weather continued rough and stormy, with strong wind. 1925, L. M. Newton, The Story of the Twelfth: A Record of the 12th Battalion, page 132: