jumbuck

Meaning

Noun

• A sheep.

Origin

• Unknown, from pidgin, possibly from an Australian Aboriginal language, although it appears also to have moved from pidgin to Aboriginal. Numerous derivations have been proposed.
• Mr A. Meston of Brisbane, in the Sydney Bulletin of 18 April 1896, cited Aboriginal words jimba, jombock (also jombok), dombock and dumbog, all meaning "white mist preceding a shower," which a flock of sheep supposedly resembles.
• Charles Harpur in a handwritten footnote in his papers cites Aboriginal word junbuc or jimbuc (his handwriting is unclear), "a kind of kangaroo or wallaby", and states that the aborigines of the Hunter region call the sheep thus for the hairiness of one and the wooliness of the other.
• Also suggested is jumbock ("to communicate").
• An English derivation is suggested in a corruption of the phrase "jump up".