Standard Lemma guide

Binghi

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • /ˈbɪŋaɪ/

1

noun

Meaning 1

An Aboriginal person.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, derogatory, ethnic, slur

Examples

  • 1948 S.E. Pearson, In the Kalkadoon Country: The Habitat and Habits of a Queensland Aboriginal Tribe, written for The Historical Society of Queensland, https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:210202/s18378366_1949_4_2_190.pdf Wood-Jones believed that these early migrants got here by sea, in canoes, and that each one brought with him his missus and the kids. Wood-Jones also held to the opinion that Binghi brought with him the dingo—a domesticated Asiatic wolf—together with the dingo's missus. Botanists also lean to the belief that Binghi brought with him (for food purposes) the seeds of certain plants which are not considered to be indigenes of this country; a notable instance being Prickly Acacia (A. Farnesiana), bunkaman, of the blackfellows.
  • 1962 Manning Clark, Manning Clark's History of Australia, Abridged by Michael Cathcart, Melbourne University Press, 1993, Chapter 7, p. 438, https://books.google.ca/books?id=PYpNYjr_xQEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false In November 1909 the Bulletin ridiculed the Australian Church Congress for uttering lamentations about the obvious passing away of "our black brother Binghi". What maddened the Bulletin was the tears from the advocates of the universal embrace. The bishops, the clergy, and all the other creeps had never been brave enough to say they wanted more Binghis in the world. To be born Binghi meant being black and often naked, to be a person who had an incurable tendency to lead a squalid life in a gunyah. Binghis, said the Bulletin, added nothing to the world's stock of knowledge.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From a word meaning "elder brother" in the Ngamba, Birbai and Wanarua languages once spoken between Kempsey and Newcastle, NSW.