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New South Wales

New South Wales

3 2.3
A state in the southeast of Australia with Sydney as its capital
  • proper noun
translation icon : Nueva Gales del Sur
  • Broken Hill is located in New South Wales, a state in southeastern Australia.
  • New South Wales, Australia
  • Sydney, New South Wales
  • University of New South Wales

Examples

  • Tullamore is located within Parkes Shire in rural New South Wales.

    Academic text (2012)
  • The group are not from the Northern Territory, but from the notorious housing estate known as The Block, in Sunnyvale, New South Wales.

  • Broken Hill is in the country of New South Wales in Australia.

    Academic text (2004)
  • Someday, you must come to New South Wales.

  • Michael Thielscher is a professor at the University of New South Wales.

    Academic text (2017)
  • Photo (black & white): Right: the Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia.

    Academic text (1996)
  • Participants were 803 English-speaking preschoolers from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

    Academic text (2015)
  • Lake Mungo is in southwestern New South Wales, and that was the location of the school camp that Alice went on from August the 2nd to the 5th in 2005.

  • In 1851, the Irish-born constituted 20.6 percent of the population of New South Wales, the foundation Australian colony.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Dr. Bryant is an associate professor emeritus of geography at the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia.

    Academic text (2009)

Surface Forms

Morphology

new + South + Wales

Although the parts 'new', 'South' and 'Wales' clearly signal a place-name, a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would likely infer something like the southern or new part of Wales (in the UK) rather than the actual referent, an Australian state. The conventional, historical reference of this proper name is not predictable from its components, so its meaning is not transparently derivable.

Etymology

New South Wales may come from Captain James Cook, who thought the coast looked like parts of Wales in Britain. He used New because it was a new place and South to show its location, so the name now means the Australian state we know today.