didgeridoo

Meanings

1. A musical instrument, endemic to the Top End of Australia, consisting of a long hollowed-out log which, when blown into, produces a low, deep mesmerising drone with sweeping rhythms.

1. To play the digeridoo.

Etymology

Likely onomatopoeic in reference to the sound made by the instrument, or the words spoken into the instrument to play it. The earliest known description of the instrument was in 1829 by Captain Collet Barker, in which it was described as making the sound didoggerry whoan. In 2002, Lonergan proposed that the term could derive from Irish dúdaire dubh (“black hummer”) or Scottish Gaelic dùdaire dùth (“native piper”), though the latter seems to be coincidental, since there is no corroborating evidence and the terms would refer to the player (rather than the instrument itself).