Wombat
/ˈwɒm.bæt/noun
A short-legged Australian marsupial that digs burrows and has a pouch opening backward.
Did you know?The word entered English through early colonial encounters near Sydney, making “wombat” one of the surviving everyday traces of an Indigenous Australian language.
Etymological Timeline
Before 1790
Dharuk
wambad
“The animal now called a wombat; recorded as an Indigenous name from the Sydney region.”
1798
English
wombat
“An Australian burrowing marsupial; one of the earliest English records of the borrowed name.”
Early 19th Century
English
wombach
“An alternative early English spelling of wombat.”
19th Century
English
wombat
“The spelling becomes increasingly standardized in natural-history and colonial writing.”
Modern English
English
wombat
“A stout Australian marsupial known for burrowing and cube-shaped droppings.”