Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1770s
Kangaroo
from gangurru (Guugu Yimithirr)
- Meaning
- One specific species of grey kangaroo.
- Source word
- gangurru (Guugu Yimithirr)
- Route into English
- Recorded by Joseph Banks in 1770 on Cook's first voyage, from speakers near the Endeavour River in Queensland. The word generalised in English to the whole macropod family.
- Arrived
- 1770s
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.