different between squattocracy vs squatter

English

Etymology

From squat +? -ocracy.

Pronunciation

Noun

squattocracy (usually uncountable, plural squattocracies)

1. (Australia, historical) Wealthy landowners (squatters) considered as a class.
   • 1862, Clara Aspinall, Three Years in Melbourne, 2010, Forgotten Books, page 235,

     Most of the Squattocracy are members of “The Club,” and therefore know who are the chief agreeable idlers (I mean gentlemen who are not oppressed with business) to whom to introduce a stranger.

   • 2005, Rosamond Siemon, The Eccentric Mr Wienholt, University of Queensland Press, page 206,

     They held respected positions and wielded power in country towns, but in the wider district the pastoral squattocracy was still considered powerful and important. That attentive second echelon of society liked, where possible, to be seen to be associated with the squattocracy.

   • 2010, Tony Moore, Death Or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788-1868, unnumbered page,

     The prejudices of the home counties squirearchy had clearly taken root among the Australian squattocracy.

Usage notes

Used to refer to the political and social power of squatters who had become rich exploiting illegally occupied Crown land.

See also

• bunyip aristocracy

English

Etymology

From squat +? -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?skw?t?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?skw??t??/

Noun

squatter (plural squatters)

1. One who squats, sits down idly.

   • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, […] the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts, the speed-mad fugitives from the furies of ennui, the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

2. One who occupies a building or land without title or permission. [From 1788.]
   1. (Australia, historical) One who occupied Crown land. [From 1828.]
      • 2004, James Jupp, The English in Australia, p.62:

        While settlement in New South Wales was initially confined, many moved outside the boundaries to become squatters, eventually consolidating their originally illegal hold on the land.

3. (Australia, historical) A large-scale grazier and landowner.
   • 1970, George Sampson, The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 3rd Edition, p.754:

     Boldrewood was a squatter, a magistrate and a commissioner of goldfields and knew thoroughly the life he described in Robbery Under Arms (1888), the story of the bushranger Captain Starlight—first serialised in The Sydney Mail in 1881—and in his numerous other novels, which included The Squatter?s Dream (1890).

   • 1993, Manning Clark, Michael Cathcart (abridging editor), Manning Clark?s History of Australia: Abridged by Michael Cathcart, p.218:

     In Parliament, at least, the squatters were secure. ¶ In the early 1840s a severe depression threatened livelihoods in all the colonies except South Australia and many squatters resorted to slaughtering their sheep and boiling them down for tallow.

   • 2010, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Peter Carey: A Literary Companion, p.233:

     His dealings with squatter R. R. McBean and superintendents Hare and Nicolson amaze the 16-year-old, who has little experience with the wealthy privileged class.

4. (informal) A squat toilet.
   • 2012, Randall L. Erickson, Traveling Business Class, p.54:

     All of the toilets in both the men's and women's sides were squatters.

Usage notes

In Australian historical usage, the distinction between the senses of occupier of Crown land and large scale landowner is often blurred; many of the original illegal landholders became rich and, as a group, politically powerful.

Derived terms

• cybersquatter, websquatter

Related terms

• squat
• squattocracy

Translations

See also

• cocky (small scale farmer)

Anagrams

• quartets

French

Etymology

From English squat.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skwa.te/

Verb

squatter

1. to squat
2. to crash (to make temporary living arrangements)

3. to tie up

Conjugation

Derived terms

• squattage
• squattériser
• squatteur

Further reading

• “squatter” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• traquets