emu

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Portuguese ema,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a word first meaning a crane, then the ostrich and other birds that look like it,^[2][7][8] and recorded in 1541 as a name for the cassowary.^[9] Its further origin is unknown,^[3][7] though the American Heritage Dictionary suggests an Arabic word for the ostrich.^[10][11] Early travellers claimed that the word was the name used on Banda and the neighbouring islands, and Barnhart and Klein still derive the Portuguese word from the Moluccas;^[2][12][13] Etymonline thinks it may be a folk etymology of a native name.^[3] Dictionary.com finds the change of the Portuguese ending in English unexplained.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cassowary: 1613, in Purchas's Pilgrimage, "The bird called Emia or Eme is admirable".^[2][8][12] Merriam-Webster gives 1656 as its first date.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The word passed from one large flightless bird to another: it first meant the cassowary, a use that ended in the 17th century,^[2][15][5] and in the late 18th century it was applied to the American rhea, perhaps by mistake, since the Portuguese word was used for that bird.^[2][5] Its use for the Australian bird is recorded from the late 18th century in the Shorter Oxford;^[5] the OED's first record is from 1842.^[2][12] The OED's first edition noted in 1891 that emu had become the usual spelling, though some authorities preferred emeu.^[2] In Australian slang an emu or emu-bobber was someone who picked up things from the ground, at first pieces of timber after clearing and later litter or dropped betting tickets at a racecourse, from the bird's pecking.^[16]

Timeline

• 1613 – emia or eme, the cassowary (obsolete).^[2][8]
• 1774 – the American rhea (obsolete).^[2][15]
• 1842 – the large flightless bird of Australia.^[2][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large flightless Australian bird, Dromaius novaehollandiae, related to the cassowary and the ostrich, with shaggy grey or brown plumage and three-toed feet.^[11][14][17]
2. (obsolete, 1613–1656) The cassowary.^[2][5][15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers