fossick

• \FAH-sik\ • verb

1 : (Australia & New Zealand) to search about especially for gold or gemstones

2 : (chiefly Australia & New Zealand) to search about : rummage

Examples:

As teenagers, the twins spent many summer afternoons fossicking for opals in the old mine.

"McDowall outlines the last day's activities: a morning jaunt to Southport…, then the afternoon at Franklin discovering the Wooden Boat Centre, fossicking for antiques and having a pint at a colourful local bar." — Kendall Hill, The Australian, 20 Feb. 2016

Did you know?

The first people to fossick (in the oldest and still-current meaning of the word), back in the 1850s, were picking over abandoned mining excavations in Australia and New Zealand in search of gold or gemstones. But within a few decades fossick was being used more generally to mean "to search about" or "to rummage." Fossick, as we know it, is a native of Down Under, but it may have its origins in a word known to immigrants from the United Kingdom: the dialect term fussock, meaning "to bustle about" or "to fidget."