fossick

Etymology

Probably from dialectal fossick (“to ferret out”), fossuck (“troublesome person”), fussick (“to potter over one's work”), fussock (“to bustle about”), further origin uncertain. Compare fuss.

verb

1. (intransitive, Australia, Britain, New Zealand) To search for something; to rummage.
   1. (intransitive, Australia, Britain, New Zealand, specifically) To elicit information; to ferret out.
      [T]he honorable member went to the Railway department, and fossicked about for information, and he found, forsooth, that there had been a little rise in the salary of a son of a member of the House. 28 May 1872, Francis Longmore, “Address in Reply to the Governor’s Speech”, in Victoria. Parliamentary Debates. Session 1872. Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, volume XIV (Comprising the Period from April 30 to September 4), Melbourne, Vic.: John Ferres, printer, →OCLC, page 389, column 1
   2. (intransitive, Australia, Britain, New Zealand, specifically) To search for gems, gold, etc., on the surface or in abandoned workings.
      The "fossicker" is one who wanders about old diggings, armed with a knife and pan, and who seldom sinks or drives, but "fossicks" or searches about the old heaps of dirt, or in the bottoms of deserted shafts and drives, keen-eyed after unobserved gold. 1862 December, J. A. Patterson, “Mining and Miners”, in The Gold Fields of Victoria in 1862, Melbourne, Vic.: Wilson & Mackinnon, 78, Collins Street East; G[eorge] Robertson, Elizabeth Street; Sands & MacDougall, Collins Street West, →OCLC, page 317
      In New South Wales the bureau has been able to dispose of a large contingent of the workless by sending them to fossick for gold on old or deserted goldfields. 1902, William Pember Reeves, “The Labour Question”, in State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand, volume 2, London: G. Richards, →OCLC; republished as State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand (Cambridge Library Collection), New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 2011, page 221
      The best way to fossick on old dumps is to either sieve material from untouched areas (you'd do this on the opal fields) or drag down the sides with a rake. You can also find gemstones by closely examining the surface without necessarily disturbing it. 1994, Ron Moon, Viv Moon [et al.], Outback Australia: a Lonely Planet Australia Guide, Hawthorn, Vic., Oakland, Calif.: Lonely Planet Publications, page 118, column 2
      In order to fossick you must first obtain a fossicking permit (free). They are available from the tourist offices in Darwin and Alice Springs, or Gemtree […] in the Harts Range. Permission to fossick on freehold land and mineral leases must be obtained from the owner or leaseholder. 2006, Paul Harding, Susannah Farfor, Lindsay Brown, Northern Territory & Central Australia, Hawthorn, Vic.: Lonely Planet, page 52
2. (intransitive, British dialect) To be troublesome.