a. and sb. Also Van Diemonian, Diemenian. [f. Van Diemen(’s Land, the original name of Tasmania, given by its discoverer Tasman in 1642 in honor of Anthony Van Diemen (1593–1645), governor of the Dutch East Indies.]
A. adj. Of, belonging to, or inhabiting Tasmania.
Freq. applied to the convicts domiciled there in the early part of the 19th c.
1840. G. Arden, Austr. Felix, 9. A shrewd old Vandemonian colonist.
1853. S. Sidney, Three Colonies Austral. (ed. 2), 171, note. Acts levelled against Van Diemonian expirees.
1855. W. Howitt, Two Y. Victoria, xx. I. 367. Some of the Van Diemenian convicts.
B. sb. An inhabitant of Tasmania.
1852. G. C. Mundy, Our Antipodes, III. viii. 251. The Van Diemonians, as they unpleasingly call themselves.
1867. Cassell’s Mag., II. 440/2. ‘I never wanted to leave England,’ I have heard an old Vandemonian observe boastfully.
Hence Vandemonianism, rough or unmannerly behavior; rowdyism.
1863. Victorian Hansard, 22 April, IX. 701 (Morris). Mr. Houston looked upon the conduct of hon. gentlemen opposite as ranging from the extreme of vandemonianism to the extreme of namby-pambyism.
