it isn't true'Kangaroo' comes from the Guugu Ymittirr language of botany bay, where it means the large grey or black kangaroo.
As the English settlers moved into the interior, they used this word to refer to any old kangaroo or wallaby.
The Bagandji people lived 1400 miles from Botany Bay and didn't speak Guugu Ymittirr.
They heard the English settlers using this unfamiliar word and took it to mean 'an animal that no-one has ever seen before'.
So they (quite reasonably) used the word to describe the settlers' horses.
Thank you, oh great Book of General Ignorance
(As the English settlers moved into the interior, they used this word to refer to any old kangaroo or wallaby.
The Bagandji people lived 1400 miles from Botany Bay and didn't speak Guugu Ymittirr.
They heard the English settlers using this unfamiliar word and took it to mean 'an animal that no-one has ever seen before'.
So they (quite reasonably) used the word to describe the settlers' horses.
Thank you, oh great Book of General Ignorance
mrlogic is copying your beard,
Wed 21 Feb 2007, 12:48,
archived)