List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin
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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.
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Flora and fauna
- ballart
- barramundhi[1]
- bilby
- wikt:bindii
- bogong
- boobook
- brigalow
- brolga
- budgerigar
- bunyip
- burdardu
- coolabah[1]
- cunjevoi
- curara
- currawong
- dingo
- galah
- gang-gang
- geebung
- gidgee
- gilgie
- gymea
- jarrah
- kangaroo[2]
- koala
- kookaburra
- kurrajong
- kutjera
- mallee
- marri
- mihirung
- mulga
- myall
- numt
- pademelon
- potoroo
- quandong
- quokka
- quoll
- taipan
- wallaby
- wallaroo
- waratah[1]
- 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.[3])
- gilgai
- min-min lights (ground-level lights of uncertain origin sometimes seen in remote rural Australia)
- willy willy (dust devil)
Aboriginal culture
- alcheringa
- boomerang
- bunyips
- coolamon (wooden curved bowl used to carry food or baby)
- corroboree
- djanga
- gin (a racially offensive word for an Aboriginal woman)
- 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
- 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
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)
- cockabully (from Māori kokopu)
- cockatoo (from Malay)
- 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)
References
Slang - Australian Government Website
- ^ a b c d "Learn English: Borrowed Indigenous Australian words". ABC Education. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 July 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
- ^ "Australian slang - a story of Australian English". Retrieved 30 April 2017.
- ^ http://theperthfiles.blogspot.com.au/2006/04/bull-ants-boondies-bogans-and-bore.html
- ^ "Yarndi within the community". Australian Drug Foundation. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
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.