To: Department of Linguistics University of Melbourne Australia Subject: Origin of 'jumbuck' as used to mean 'sheep' G'day Peter Researching for a discussion thread at http://www.mudcat.org/ has led me to you... We were discussing the origin and meanings of the words used in Waltzing Matilda, including jumbuck, meaning sheep, and found two references in online dictionaries ( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/jumbucks & http://www.answers.com/topic/jumbuck ) stating that jumbuck was a word of possible Kamilaroi origin. I could not find it listed in your on-line Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay Dictionary. at http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVLPages/AborigPages/LANG/GAMDICT/GAMDICTF.HTM The word for cloud there is listed as yuru. I have found references to: junbuc jimbuc jimba, jombock, dombock, dumbog meaning: white mist preceding a shower I had previously heard this expressed as small white fluffy cloud. Can you provide opinion on this please? The full thread is here: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=28379 Please feel free to join the discussion, or reply to me direct if you prefer. Cheers aussiebloke Darwin NT
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