Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1820s
Boomerang
from bumerang (Dharug)
- Meaning
- A throwing-stick of the Sydney basin Aboriginal peoples.
- Source word
- bumerang (Dharug)
- Route into English
- Recorded by First Fleet colonists around Port Jackson in the 1820s. Returning-boomerang is the English stereotype; most traditional boomerangs are straight hunting sticks that don't return.
- Arrived
- 1820s
From Indigenous languages
A loose group: Nahuatl, Taino, Algonquian, Guugu Yimithirr, and others. Colonial contact produced many loans; the speakers were often systematically dispossessed of the land the loanwords described.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.