koala

Etymology

It is borrowed from Dharug gula, also gulawany,^[2][3][1] the name of the animal in Dharuk, the Aboriginal language of the Port Jackson area.^[3][4] The earlier English spellings “coola”, “koola” and “koolah” were replaced by koala, probably through a misreading or a scribal error.^{[2][5][6][7][8]} The OED cites similar forms recorded by Ridley in Dippil and on George's River,^[6] and Barnhart and Etymonline note that the name was written down in several spellings in different parts of Australia.^[9][10] Morris (1898) took it as a variant of an Aboriginal word for a big animal, noting that “koola” meant a kangaroo in parts of South Australia,^[11] and Partridge thought it probably imitated the animal's cry.^[12] The town of Coolah in New South Wales takes its name from the same word.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Australian marsupial: 1808, in a paper by E. Home in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.^[6][9][10] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1803,^[13][3] and the Shorter Oxford to the late 18th century.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Early accounts describe the animal by comparison: an 1818 history of New South Wales calls the koolah a sloth of the opossum kind,^[11] and in Australia it was also called the native bear.^[15][4] The form koala was in scientific use by 1849, in John Gould's papers for the Zoological Society of London.^[11] In Australian slang a koala has been a diplomat, protected like the animal, since about 1945, and an ungrateful man.^[16]

Timeline

• 1808 – the Australian marsupial.^[6][9][10] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1803.^[13]
• c. 1945 – Australian slang, a diplomat.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A slow-moving, tree-dwelling Australian marsupial (Phascolarctos cinereus) with thick grey fur and large furry ears, which feeds on eucalyptus leaves; also called koala bear.^{[15][13][6][14]}
2. (Australian slang) A diplomat, who cannot be prosecuted under Australian law.^[16]

Usage notes

The form koala bear is common in everyday use, but zoologists regard it as incorrect, since the animal is a marsupial and not a bear.^[4][7] In Australia it has also been called the native bear.^[15][4][11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com