bunya

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʌnjə/

Etymology 1

From Yagara bunya bunya, Gabi bunyi, Wakawaka bunyi.

Alternative forms

• bunna bunna (obsolete)
• bunya bunya, bunyah-bunyah

Noun

bunya (plural bunyas)

1. The bunya pine, Araucaria bidwillii, native to Queensland. [from 19th c.]
   • 1887, Maturin Murray Ballou, Under the Southern Cross:

     The palm takes the place of the eucalyptus to a certain extent, and the woods teem with the bunya-bunya, — a very desirable and ornamental tree, which belongs to the pine family.

   • 1993, Philip McLaren, Sweet Water…Stolen Land, in Heiss & Minter, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin 2008, p. 142:

     Her three favourite bunyah-bunyah nut trees were destroyed last year to make way for more grazing land for sheep and other animals whose cloven hooves destroyed the delicate topsoil and laid bare the earth.

   • 2018, Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu, Scribe, published 2020, page 150:

     Bunya nuts, which come from a conifer in the genus Araucaria, are an example of a plant that fruited so heavily that large stores were set aside.

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

• bunyah

Noun

bunya (plural bunyas)

1. (dated, India) A banyan, a member of a specific Hindu caste.

Anagrams

• Yanbu, unbay

Phuthi

Etymology

From bu- +‎ -nya.

Noun

búnya class 14

1. excrement, feces

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.