A mother kangaroo with her joey in her pouch.
An example of a kangaroo is the animal at the zoo that hops around on its hind legs.
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noun
pl. -·roos′ or -·roo′Origin of kangaroo
said (by James Cook) to be from the name in a language of north eastern Australia
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noun
pl. kangaroo, or kan·ga·roosOrigin of kangaroo
Guugu Yimidhirr (Pama-Nyungan language of northeast Australia) ga&njlig;urru Word History: A widely held belief has it that the word kangaroo comes from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning “I don't know.” This is in fact untrue. The word was first recorded in 1770 by Captain James Cook, when he landed to make repairs along the northeast coast of Australia. In 1820, one Captain Phillip K. King recorded a different word for the animal, written “mee-nuah.” As a result, it was assumed that Captain Cook had been mistaken, and the myth grew up that what he had heard was a word meaning “I don't know” (presumably as the answer to a question in English that had not been understood). Recent linguistic fieldwork, however, has confirmed the existence of a word gangurru in the northeast Aboriginal language of Guugu Yimidhirr, referring to a species of kangaroo. What Captain King heard may have been their word minha, meaning “edible animal.”kangaroo
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(plural kangaroos)
(third-person singular simple present kangaroos, present participle kangarooing, simple past and past participle kangarooed)
From Guugu Yimidhirr gangurru (“eastern grey kangaroo”).
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Slang for an Australian stock.
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