# A wombat... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 30, 2002, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932 "2002-03-30T15:46:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tracytron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@Tracytron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracytron)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/1 "2002-03-30T15:46:53Z")
is neither a womb, nor a bat. Discuss. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/2 "2002-03-30T15:49:04Z")
Well obviously womb and bat can’t be found in it… I mean, it’s not a wombbat. Therefore we are left with either a wom and a bat or a womb and an at. Now, I think wombats are very at-ish, so I’d vote fore the second one. ---
**Author:** ![Tracytron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@Tracytron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracytron)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/3 "2002-03-30T15:59:40Z")
I like you.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/4 "2002-03-30T16:20:09Z")
Either way, when the wombat comes, he will find me gone. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/5 "2002-03-30T17:54:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tracytron \* > \*\*I like you.😃 \*\* Why thank you 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/6 "2002-03-30T21:29:24Z")
It comes from a native word doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/7 "2002-03-30T21:30:33Z")
Wombats are marsupials, right? Do they even HAVE wombs? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/8 "2002-03-31T00:47:50Z")
I thought all mammels had wombs? I could be wrong though, seeing as I usually am. ---
**Author:** ![\_your\_name\_here](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/919ad9/32.png) [@\_your\_name\_here](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_your_name_here)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/9 "2002-03-31T00:50:22Z")
what if, maybe, possibly, they, like, maybe, grew…uh oh…i confused myself… ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/10 "2002-03-31T07:03:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bouv \* > \*\*I thought all mammels had wombs? I could be wrong though, seeing as I usually am. \*\* Platypussies (heh, I love messing with words to make them dirty) lay eggs, so I’m asswombing they don’t have a womb in the sense we think of it. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/11 "2002-03-31T07:09:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Speaker for the Dead \* > \*\* > > Platypussies (heh, I love messing with words to make them dirty) lay eggs, so I’m asswombing they don’t have a womb in the sense we think of it. \*\* “asswombing”! HAHAHA… good one, **Speaker**! 😃 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![woolly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/12 "2002-03-31T07:25:18Z")
A wombat … is neither a womb, nor a bat. whilst a bison is not necessarily gay, nor even male. Such is the uncertainty of linguistic etymology. ---
**Author:** ![robinc308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@robinc308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinc308)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/13 "2002-03-31T07:36:20Z")
Having met a wild wombat, I can assure that it resembles neither a womb nor a bat. More of a furry rock. Wombats do (I think) have a womb, but the young mature mostly in their pouch which is backwards facing so that it doesn’t collect dirt. My sister used to call her cricket bat a wombat. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/14 "2002-03-31T07:50:38Z")
Wombats don’t really exist. They are just fig newtons of my mind. If you think wombats are real then you are not real, you live in my mind. You are a crumb of the vast fig newton that is my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Cougarfang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c67d28/32.png) [@Cougarfang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cougarfang)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/15 "2002-03-31T08:28:08Z")
Mudshark, me ole contemporary, I suggest you lay off the Twinkies for a while… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LeeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ee7513/32.png) [@LeeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeJam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/16 "2002-03-31T08:40:11Z")
Having not met a wild wombat, but having heard stories of people running over them on dark roads… you wouldn’t want to hit them accidentally with anything less than a Mack Truck. They are so solid and “dense” that they can clean the underside of your car clean off… I’ve never experienced that - luckily - but some of the stories I’ve heard… But then again… they could just be wild fantasies of a twisted mind 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Mame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mame)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/17 "2002-03-31T10:55:59Z")
A wombat is a Waste Of Money Brains And Time. More seriously, a wombat is a marsupial (pouched mammal), as are most Australian native mammals. A monotreme is an egg laying mammal, and there are only three kinds left in the world, the platypus (plural platypuses) and two types of echidna. Or, if you want etymology, which came first “gaudy” or “Gaudi”? ---
**Author:** ![robinc308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@robinc308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinc308)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/18 "2002-03-31T11:03:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LeeJam \* > \*\*Having not met a wild wombat, but having heard stories of people running over them on dark roads… you wouldn’t want to hit them accidentally with anything less than a Mack Truck. > > They are so solid and “dense” that they can clean the underside of your car clean off… > > I’ve never experienced that - luckily - but some of the stories I’ve heard… > > But then again… they could just be wild fantasies of a twisted mind 🙂 \*\* I can attest to this. However it is preferable to hit a wombat rather than a kangaroo. Man they’re big. And they come out when it’s dusk and it’s really hard to see them. Not good for the front end of the car. I imagine a koala would do similar damage to a car, being about the same size. Possums, however, just get squashed. I saw one on the road the other day. ---
**Author:** ![Eggles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d9b06d/32.png) [@Eggles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eggles)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/19 "2002-03-31T13:50:20Z")
The name ‘wombat’ is, like the names of many of Australia’s flora and fauna, European corruptions of the names given to them by indigenous Australians. Wombats do have a womb (uterus) but the young do not develop there for very long. Like other marsupials (e.g. koala, wallaby, kangaroo) the young are born at a very immature stage of development, and after birth, crawl through their mother’s fur into a pouch, where they attach themselves to a nipple (like a substitute placenta) through which they derive all their nourishment until they are mature enough to leave the pouch and fend for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wombat/100932/20 "2002-03-31T14:25:15Z")
\_Wom-Batman! nah-nah-da-da Wom-Batman! nah-nah-da-da Wo-Batman, Wom-Batman. ZAP! POW! HURT! Wo-Bat, Wom-Bat! Wom-Batman… ya-da-da-da-dah-da Wombatmannnnn!_ \ I want a toy Wom-Batmobile, Mommy! 😃 Holy Sixties Camp Classics, Wombatman!