Wiktionary

boong

English

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Etymology

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Suggested sources are

Previously the word Binghi was used widely in similar fashion to the present-day use of the term Negro for peoples of African ancestry; see titles from this booklist and also writings of Xavier Herbert (e.g. in Capricornia), for example.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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boong (plural boongs)

  1. (Australia, slang, offensive, ethnic slur) An Australian Aboriginal person.
    • 1988, Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines‎[1], page 92:
      I heard Bruce tell one of the drinkers he'd bought a place in Queensland where you could ‘still call a Boong a Boong’.
    • 2010, Peter Temple, The Broken Shore‎[2], page 82:
      ‘ […] I quit the feds because I didn't want to be a showpiece boong cop.’
    • 2011, Linda Lee Rathbun, Tjuringa, unnumbered page:
      “Yeah,” he said, “them boongs are a useless lot. The sooner they all die off, the better.”
      “And why is that?” Bill asked.
      “The Abos are nothing but a pack of boozers. All they wanna' do is get pissed.” The man glared at his beer. “Useless, they are.”
  2. (Australia, slang, dated) A native of New Guinea or Malaysia.
    • 1943, Australian Army, “Timor Souvenir”, in Khaki and Green: With the Australian Army at Home and Overseas, page 119:
      A couple of boongs came down and carried me up to the hut where our R.A.P. corporal was.
    • 1998, August Ibrum K. Kituai, My Gun, My Brother: The World of the Papua New Guinea Colonial Police, 1920-1960‎[3], page 282:
      During the War the soldiers generally referred to Papua New Guineans as “Boongs,” a name also given to black Americans. It is not a nice word, but is fair to say that the Aussies held the boongs in quite some affection during the War.
    • 2000, Prue Torney-Parlicki, Somewhere in Asia: War, Journalism and Australia's Neighbours 1941-75‎[4], page 48:
      [Department of Information cameraman Damien] Parer's views on mateship encompassed both the Papuans and the soldiers: at one point he wrote ‘“no boongs, no battle”, implying that natives and diggers were equal partners in their fight against the Japanese.’71

Alternative forms

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Synonyms

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ 1959, Xavier Herbert, Seven Emus, 2003, page 5 — The term boong is originally Malayan, meaning “brother”, but it doesn't mean anything like that in Australian usage.
  2. ^ 1988, The Bulletin, Issues 5617-5625, page 121 — They would doubtless have been amused to learn that in New Guinea, where the term "boong" originated, it means "brother" and has a kinship with the Indonesian "bung" and Thursday Island's "binghi".

Anagrams

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Gilbertese

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Noun

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boong

  1. plural of bong

Tày

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Noun

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boong

  1. the central part
    boong xay ― inside the windmill

Etymology 2

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Noun

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boong (俸)

  1. people in general
    Boong khua.
    People laugh.

Particle

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boong (𲋄)

  1. pluralizing particle for pronouns
Derived terms
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References

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  • Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎[5][6] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên

Vietnamese

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From French pont.

Noun

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boong

  1. (nautical) deck

Etymology 2

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Onomatopoeic.

Adjective

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boong

  1. (onomatopoeia) bell-like resounding sound

Etymology 3

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From English bong.

Noun

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(classifier cái) boong

  1. bong (water pipe used to smoke cannabis)
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