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 loan 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

Environment

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

Aboriginal culture

Describing words

  • Koori - Aboriginal people from Victoria and New South Wales
  • cooee
  • Murri - Aboriginal people from Queensland
  • Nungga - Aboriginal people from South Australia
  • Noongar - Aboriginal people from southern Western Australia
  • yabber - to talk
  • yakka - work
  • yarndi (slang term for marijuana)

Place names

Names

Aboriginal-sounding words not of Aboriginal origin

References

[4]

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.