Séamas Fearghail: origin of Didgeridoo

[Elizabeth J. Pyatt]

From: Séamas Fearghail <an_fearghalach at hotmail.com>
To: CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: RE: Chester Graham: origin of Didgeridoo
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 22:29:31 +0000

> An indigenous Australian working in Sydney, Jeremy, who plays the
>didgeridoo as a working musician, offers a different etymology. His
>grandmother, on the far North East coast of Australia, told him that
>the word came from Irish people who described a didgeridoo player as a

>Black Piper.

If the above is true, what immediately comes to 
mind is the Irish word dúidín (meaning 'a clay 
(smoking) pipe'). It's also possible 
that 'didgeri' may be a corrupted form of 
dúidire, itself a dialect form of dúdaire which, 
according to Ó Dónaill's Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, 
can be used to refer to 'a long-necked 
person' (related to the length of a didgeridoo?) 
or 'a hummer or crooner' (referring to the sort 
of humming drone that a didgeridoo makes?).

dúidire dubh > didgeridoo ?

That's my attempt at a possible explanation, anyway.

- Séamas


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