Fast Fact Tag: onomatopoeia

The instrument itself is much older than the English word “didgeridoo”. Early nineteenth-century writers described the instrument but used local names such as Ebero or European terms such as “trumpet”.

The earliest known printed example found so far is in the Hamilton Spectator of 24 October 1908. A story titled “Retribution” used the form “did-gery-do” and explained it as a hollow bamboo instrument.

Other spellings followed in the early twentieth century, including “didgery-doo” and “didjerry”. Herbert Basedow used “didjeridoo” in his 1925 book and described a sound like “tidjarudu, tidjarudu, tidjaruda”.

So the late appearance of the word does not mean the instrument was new. It means the now-common English name appeared much later than the instrument itself and gradually replaced a range of older local and descriptive names.