Bunyip-aristocracy definition
Origin of bunyip-aristocracy
- From bunyip (“mythical Australian monster; impostor”) + aristocracy.Coined in 1853 by Australian journalist and politician Daniel Deniehy (1828-1865) satirising a proposal of William Wentworth for an hereditary peerage in the then colony of New South Wales. At the time, bunyip was Sydney underworld slang for an impostor or con-man, a sense Deniehy may have been aware of, but which was “obviously” unknown to Wentworth.
From Wiktionary