List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin
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.
Flora and fauna
- ballart
- barramundi
- bilby
- bindii
- bogong
- boobook
- brigalow
- brolga
- budgerigar
- bunyip
- burdardu
- coolabah
- cumbungi
- cunjevoi
- curara
- currawong
- dillon bush
- dingo
- galah
- gang-gang
- geebung
- gidgee
- gilgie
- gymea
- jarrah
- kangaroo
- koala
- kookaburra
- kurrajong
- kutjera
- mallee
- marri
- mihirung
- mulga
- Myall
- numbat
- pademelon
- potoroo
- quandong
- quokka
- quoll
- taipan
- wallaby
- wallaroo
- waratah
- warrigal
- witchetty
- wobbegong
- wombat
- wonga
- wonga-wonga
- yabby.
Environment
Aboriginal culture
- alcheringa
- bingy belly, esp. in bingy-button=navel
- boomerang
- bunyip
- cooee
- coolamon
- corroboree
- dilli commonly, and tautologically, as "dilly-bag"
- djanga
- gibber esp. in gibber plain=stony desert
- gin
- gunyah
- humpy
- kurdaitcha
- lubra
- marn grook
- mia-mia
- nulla-nulla
- turndun
- waddy, earlier, any piece of wood
- woggabaliri
- woomera
- wurlie or wurley - a hut
- yabber or yabber-yabber
- yakka
- 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