List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:More citations needed This is a list of English words derived from Australian Aboriginal languages. Some are restricted to Australian English as a whole or to certain regions of the country. Others, such as kangaroo and boomerang, have become widely used in other varieties of English, and some have been borrowed into other languages beyond English. {{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=Template:AmboxTemplate:Main other }}

Flora and fauna

• ballart
• barramundi<ref name='abc'>Template:Cite news</ref>
• bilby
• bindii
• bogong
• boobook
• brigalow
• brolga
• budgerigar
• bunyip
• burdardu
• coolabah<ref name="abc" />
• cumbungi
• cunjevoi
• curara
• currawong
• dillon bush
• dingo
• galah
• gang-gang
• geebung
• gidgee
• gilgie
• gymea
• jarrah
• kangaroo<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• koala
• kookaburra
• kurrajong
• kutjera
• mallee
• marri
• mihirung
• mulga
• Myall
• numbat
• pademelon
• potoroo
• quandong
• quokka
• quoll
• taipan
• wallaby
• wallaroo
• waratah<ref name="abc" />
• 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>)
• gilgai
• lerp (crystallized honeydew produced by larvae of psyllid bugs, gathered as food)
• min-min lights (ground-level lights of uncertain origin sometimes seen in remote rural Australia)
• willy willy (dust devil)

Aboriginal culture

• alcheringa
• bingy (pron. binji)<ref name=Morris>Template:Cite book</ref> belly, esp. in bingy-button=navel
• boomerang
• bunyip<ref name=Morris/>
• cooee (a call used to attract attention)
• coolamon (wooden curved bowl used to carry food or baby)
• corroboree
• dilli (a bag)<ref name=Morris/> commonly, and tautologically, as "dilly-bag"
• djanga
• gibber (a stone)<ref name=Morris/> esp. in gibber plain=stony desert
• gin (now a racially offensive word for an Aboriginal woman)
• gunyah
• humpy (a hut)
• kurdaitcha
• lubra (now a racially offensive word for an Aboriginal woman)
• marn grook
• mia-mia (a hut)<ref name=Morris/>
• nulla-nulla
• turndun
• waddy (a wooden club), earlier, any piece of wood<ref name=Morris/>
• woggabaliri
• woomera
• wurlie or wurley<ref name=Morris/> - a hut
• yabber or yabber-yabber (talk)<ref name=Morris/>
• yakka (doing work of any kind)<ref name=Morris/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 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
• yarndi (slang term for marijuana)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Names

• Kylie (Noongar word for "throwing stick")

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)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• cockabully (from Māori kokopu)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• cockatoo (from Malay)<ref name="OED">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
• 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 Tupi–Guarani via Spanish, originally referred to an American bird)
• nullarbor (Latin for no tree)'<ref>Template:Cite dictionary</ref>

Further reading

Template:WiktionarycatAustralian Aboriginal Words in English: their origin and meaning, Dixon, R.M.W., Moore, Bruce, Ramson, W.S., and Thomas, Mandy (2006), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. ISBN 9780195540734Template:English words of foreign origin Template:Indigenous Australians