List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin
These words of Australian Aboriginal origin include some that are almost universal in the English-speaking world, 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
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Flora and fauna
- ballart
- barramundi
- bilby
- Bindii-eye
- bogong
- boobook
- brigalow
- brolga
- budgerigar
- bunyip
- burdardu
- coolabah
- cunjevoi
- curara
- currawong
- dingo
- drongo
- galah
- gang-gang
- geebung
- gidgee
- gilgie
- gymea
- jarrah
- kangaroo[1]
- koala
- kookaburra
- kurrajong
- kutjera
- mallee
- marri
- mihirung
- mulga
- myall
- numt
- pademelon
- potoroo
- quandong
- quokka
- quoll
- taipan
- wallaby
- wallaroo
- waratah
- warrigal
- witchetty
- wobbegong
- wombat
- wonga
- wonga-wonga
- yabby
Environment
- billabong
- bombora (rapids–often used to describe offshore reef breaks)
- boondie (hardened clump of sand; Noongar, W.A.[2])
- gibber (a boulder)
- gilgai
- min-min lights (ground-level lights of uncertain origin sometimes seen in remote rural Australia)
- willy willy (dust devil)
Aboriginal culture
- alcheringa
- boomerang
- bunyip
- coolamon (wooden curved bowl used to carry food or baby)
- corroboree
- didgeridoo
- djanga
- gunyah
- humpy (a hut)
- kurdaitcha
- lubra (a racially offensive word for an Aboriginal woman)
- marn grook
- mia-mia (a hut)
- nulla-nulla
- turndun
- waddy (a wooden club)
- woggabaliri
- woomera
- wurlie - a hut
- Yara-ma-yha-who
Describing words
Place names
Main article: List of Australian place names of Aboriginal origin
Names
English words often assumed but not of Aboriginal origin
- bandicoot (from Telugu)
- cockabully (from Māori kokopu)
- cockatoo (from Malay)
- didgeridoo (possibly from Irish or Scots Gaelic dúdaire dubh or dúdaire dúth [both /d̪u:d̪ɪrɪ d̪u:/] "black piper" or "native piper")
- emu (from Arabic, via Portuguese, for large bird)
- goanna (corruption of iguana)
- jabiru (from the Spanish)
- Nullarbor (Latin for no tree)
References
- ↑ http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-slang. Retrieved 2015-04-20. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ http://theperthfiles.blogspot.com.au/2006/04/bull-ants-boondies-bogans-and-bore.html
- ↑ http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-slang
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For a list of words relating to with Australian Aboriginal language origins, see the Australian Aboriginal derivations category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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