or Boomer
name of a very large kangaroo, Macropus giganteus, Shaw. The spelling «boomah» seems due to a supposed native origin. See quotation, 1872, the explanation in which is probablyerroneous. It is really from the verb to boom, to rush withviolence.
1830. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 110:
«Snapped the boomah's haunches, and he turned round to offerbattle.»
1833. Lieut. Breton, `Excursions in New South Wales, WesternAustralia, and Van Diemen's Land,' p. 251:
«Boomah. Implies a large kangaroo.»
Ibid. p. 254:
«The flying gin (gin is the native word for woman or female)is a boomah, and will leave behind every description of dog.»
1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 244:
«The Great or Forest Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), the`Forester' of the Colonists. . . .The oldest and heaviest maleof the herd was called a `Boomer,' probably a native term.»
1853. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 325:
«The forester ( Macropus major, Shaw), the male beingknown by the name of `boomer,' and the young female by that of`flying doe,' is the largest and only truly gregariousspecies.»
1854. G. H. Haydon, `The Australian Emigrant,' p. 124:
«It was of an old man kangaroo,a regular boomer.»
1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 169:
«An officer from Van Diemen's Land told me that he had oncekilled in that colony a kangaroo of such magnitude, that, beinga long way from home, he was unable, although on horseback, tocarry away any portion except the tail, which alone weighedthirty pounds. This species is called the boomah, and standsabout seven feet high.»
1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. i. p. 47:
«Sometimes starting a grand boomah, or great red kangaroo.»
1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. v. p. 124:
«Some of the male kangaroos, called `boomers,' were describedas being four or five feet high.»
1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' p. 55:
«The Boomer starts, and ponders
What kind of beasts we be.»
1867. W. Richardson, `Tasmanian Poems,' p. 26:
«The dogs gather round a `boomer' they've got.»
1872. Mrs. E. Millett, `An Australian Parsonage,' p. 195:
«A tall old Booma, as the natives call the malekangaroo, can bring his head on a level with the face of a manon horseback. . . . A kangaroo's feet are, in fact, hisweapons of defence with which, when he is brought to bay, hetears his antagonists the dogs most dreadfully, and instancesare not wanting of even men having been killed by a large oldmale. No doubt this peculiar method of disposing of hisenemies has earned him the name of Booma, which in thenative language signifies to strike.»
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 16:
«As he plunged into the yellow waters, the dogs were once moreby his side, and again the `boomer' wheeled, and backed againstone of the big trees that stud these hollows.»
Applied generally to something very large.
1885. `Australasian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 76:
«When the shades of evening come, I choose a boomer of a gum.»