Dharug
/ˈdɑːrʊɡ/noun
Dharug is the name of an Aboriginal Australian people and the language traditionally spoken in the Sydney region of New South Wales.
Did you know?Dharug is also spelled Darug and Dharuk, and its documentation was heavily disrupted by colonization, making confident claims about a single literal translation unreliable.
Etymological Timeline
Before 1788
Dharug
Dharug
“An Indigenous ethnolinguistic name used by the people and associated with the Sydney-region language group; the original internal meaning is not securely established.”
1788
English records
Dharuk
“An early European-recorded spelling of the name, reflecting attempts to represent an Aboriginal language unfamiliar to English speakers.”
19th Century
English
Darug
“A spelling used in colonial and scholarly records for the people and language of the Sydney basin.”
20th Century
English
Dharug
“A standardized or revived spelling increasingly used in linguistic, cultural, and community contexts.”
Modern English
English
Dharug
“The contemporary name of the Aboriginal people and language, now used prominently in language revitalization and cultural education.”