For instance, the name of the animal “Kangaroo” comes from the Guugu Yimithirr language, but was a misunderstanding. When an European settler was pointing at a kangaroo and asking what it was, the Aborigine gentlemen thought he was pointing at this other Aboriginal guy named Kevin and asking about HIM. The Guugu Yimithirr for “Kevin is a fucking asshole” is “Kanvin gar-fuck-roo” and it got shortened to “kangaroo.”
POSH: Port Out, Starboard Home (on a ship leaving England presumably it was ideal to be on the port side when leaving and the starboard side when returning for the best views)
CRAP: Not Thomas Crapper (a plumber)
TIP: To Insure Prompt Service
“Sham-poo” is slang for “Fake smell”.
I always thought kangaroo was aborigine for “I don’t know”, which is the reply Captain Cook got when he asked a local what the name of the jumpy creature was.
What always amazes me is that there are related marsupials the kangaroo, the wallaby, and the wallaroo. All three come from indigenous languages. And wallaroos are intermediate in size between kangaroos and wallabies. So it sounds like wallaroo is a portmanteau between the other ones because it is in between them in size, it it’s not named for that.
Few people know that the very common English word “the” is derived from a proto-Indo-European word originally meaning “mine”. This is because of an ancient chief who thought everything did or should belong to him, and who therefore went around appending the word for “mine” in front of almost every noun. Eventually the rest of his group got tired of this, and of his other misbehavior, and threw him over a cliff. Cliffs at the time were known as “aaa”, because a person thrown over one said “Aaaaaaaa!” on the way down. So, when although the chief was gone the habit of adding a syllable in front of a noun turned out to have taken root, people occasionally argued about whether “the” or “a” was the proper syllable to use in a given case.
“Cha-ching” is a very racist term derived from the very racist belief that Chinese people are motivated by wealth.
“Kemosabe” does not mean “faithful friend.” It may be an Ojibwe term, or it may not be anything at all.