List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These words of Australian Aboriginal origin include some that are used frequently within Australian-English, such as kangaroo and boomerang. Many such words have also become loaned words in other languages beyond English, while some are restricted to Australian English.

Flora and fauna[]

Environment[]

  • billabong
  • bombora (rapids–often used to describe offshore reef breaks)
  • boondie (hardened clump of sand; Noongar, W.A.[3])
  • gilgai
  • min-min lights (ground-level lights of uncertain origin sometimes seen in remote rural Australia)
  • willy willy (dust devil)

Aboriginal culture[]

Describing words[]

  • Koori - Aboriginal people from Victoria and New South Wales
  • cooee
  • Nunga - Aboriginal people from South Australia
  • Murri - Aboriginal people from Queensland
  • Noongar - Aboriginal people from southern Western Australia
  • Palawa - Aboriginal people from Tasmania
  • yabber - to talk
  • yakka - work[1]
  • yarndi (slang term for marijuana)[4]

Place names[]

Main article: List of Australian place names of Aboriginal origin

Names[]

English words often falsely assumed to be of Australian Aboriginal origin[]

  • bandicoot (from the Telugu, pandikokku a term originally referring to the unrelated bandicoot rat)[5]
  • cockabully (from Māori kokopu)[6]
  • cockatoo (from Malay)[7]
  • didgeridoo (possibly from Irish or Scottish Gaelic dúdaire duh or dúdaire dúth [both /d̪u:d̪ɪrɪ d̪u:/] "black piper" or "native piper")
  • emu (from Arabic, via Portuguese, for large bird)
  • goanna (corruption of the Taíno iguana)
  • jabiru (from the Spanish)
  • nullarbor (Latin for no tree)'[8]

References[]

Slang - Australian Government Website

  1. ^ a b c d "Learn English: Borrowed Indigenous Australian words". ABC Education. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 July 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  2. ^ "Australian slang - a story of Australian English". Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  3. ^ "The Perth Files: Bull ants, 'boondies', bogans and bore water". 13 April 2006.
  4. ^ "Yarndi within the community". Australian Drug Foundation. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  5. ^ Satpathy, Sumanyu (2017-09-30). "A tea party with Topiwalla and Alice". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  6. ^ Wassilieff, Maggy. "Cockabully". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  7. ^ J. Simpson; E. Weiner, eds. (1989). "cockatoo". Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861186-8.
  8. ^ Macquarie Dictionary (2nd ed.). Macquarie University. 1991. p. 1220. ISBN 0-949757-63-2.
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