boong

English

Etymology

Suggested sources are

• Malay bung (“brother”),
• Indonesian dialectal bung (“brother”)
• A New Guinea native language
• An Aboriginal Australian language.

Previously the word Binghi was used widely in similar fashion to the present-day use of the term Negro for peoples of African ancestry; see titles from this booklist and also writings of Xavier Herbert (e.g. in Capricornia), for example.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʊŋ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊŋ

Noun

boong (plural boongs)

1. (Australia, slang, offensive, ethnic slur) An Australian Aboriginal person.
   • 1988, Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines‎^[1], page 92:

     I heard Bruce tell one of the drinkers he'd bought a place in Queensland where you could ‘still call a Boong a Boong’.

   • 2010, Peter Temple, The Broken Shore‎^[2], page 82:

     ‘ […] I quit the feds because I didn't want to be a showpiece boong cop.’

   • 2011, Linda Lee Rathbun, Tjuringa, unnumbered page:

     “Yeah,” he said, “them boongs are a useless lot. The sooner they all die off, the better.”
     “And why is that?” Bill asked.
     “The Abos are nothing but a pack of boozers. All they wanna' do is get pissed.” The man glared at his beer. “Useless, they are.”

2. (Australia, slang, dated) A native of New Guinea or Malaysia.
   • 1943, Australian Army, “Timor Souvenir”, in Khaki and Green: With the Australian Army at Home and Overseas, page 119:

     A couple of boongs came down and carried me up to the hut where our R.A.P. corporal was.

   • 1998, August Ibrum K. Kituai, My Gun, My Brother: The World of the Papua New Guinea Colonial Police, 1920-1960‎^[3], page 282:

     During the War the soldiers generally referred to Papua New Guineans as “Boongs,” a name also given to black Americans. It is not a nice word, but is fair to say that the Aussies held the boongs in quite some affection during the War.

   • 2000, Prue Torney-Parlicki, Somewhere in Asia: War, Journalism and Australia's Neighbours 1941-75‎^[4], page 48:

     [Department of Information cameraman Damien] Parer's views on mateship encompassed both the Papuans and the soldiers: at one point he wrote ‘“no boongs, no battle”, implying that natives and diggers were equal partners in their fight against the Japanese.’⁷¹

Alternative forms

• bung or bong

Synonyms

• (Asian or dark-skinned person): Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel
• (aboriginal): abo, Jacky

See also

• List of ethnic slurs on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• bogon, bongo

Gilbertese

Noun

boong

1. plural of bong

Makasar

Etymology

Cognate Buginese bowong.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈboːŋ/, [ˈɓõ.õŋ]
• Hyphenation: bo‧ong

Noun

boong (Lontara spelling ᨅᨚᨕᨚ)

1. (dialectal) Alternative spelling of bongong (“veil, headscarf”).

Further reading

• A. A. Cense (2024) Makassaars-Nederlands woordenboek‎^[5], Brill, →DOI

Tày

Pronunciation

• (Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA^(key): [ɓɔŋ˧˥]
• (Trùng Khánh) IPA^(key): [ɓɔŋ˦]

Etymology 1

Noun

boong

1. the central part

   boong xay ― inside the windmill

Etymology 2

Noun

boong (俸)

1. people in general

   Boong khua.

   People laugh.

Particle

boong (𲋄)

1. pluralizing particle for pronouns

Derived terms

• boong hây
• boong khỏi
• boong là
• boong lầu
• boong mầư
• boong mền
• boong te

 

References

• Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎^[6][7] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓɔŋ˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓɔŋ͡m˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɓɔŋ˧˧]

Etymology 1

From French pont.

Noun

boong

1. (nautical) deck

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic.

Adjective

boong

1. (onomatopoeia) bell-like resounding sound

Etymology 3

From English bong.

Noun

(classifier cái) boong

1. bong (water pipe used to smoke cannabis)