Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The spear-thrower, or throwing-stick, of the aborigines of Australia.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • All spears are thrown with the 'wommera', or throwing stick.

    Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland Frank Jardine 1880

  • Though the wommera, or, as it is known locally, the yellamun, is common in the neighbourhood of Dunk Island, it is not employed as an accessory in the spearing of fish.

    Tropic Days 2003

  • He stepped cautiously out of cover, and, using a wommera of dark wood with oval clutches of white shell, threw a spear into the long grass.

    Tropic Days 2003

  • Wylo carried a great black-palm spear fitted into a wommera with milk-white ovals of shell at the grip.

    My Tropic Isle 2003

  • Darts are also improvised from blady grass by two other methods, each a prototype of the spear and wommera.

    My Tropic Isle 2003

  • It may readily be believed that a black boy playing with a grass dart exhibits one of the early stages which the spear passed ere it reached its present form in the hands of his father with a wommera.

    My Tropic Isle 2003

  • Further north it is so almost universally, a combination of boomerang and wommera being the most popular form.

    Tropic Days 2003

  • This, perhaps, is the earliest and most primitive application of the principle embodied in the wommera.

    My Tropic Isle 2003

  • On examining the spot we found the ball had cut in two the two spears he was carrying; he also dropped his wommera, which was covered with blood.

    A Source Book of Australian History Gwendolen H. [Compiler] Swinburne

  • Though the wommera, or, as it is known locally, the yellamun, is common in the neighbourhood of Dunk Island, it is not employed as an accessory in the spearing of fish.

    Tropic Days 1887

Comments

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  • n The spear-thrower, or throwing-stick, of the aborigines of Australia. Also known as a zvumera.

    July 13, 2015

  • See also woomera, which has the etymology. And a bit of chit-chat. The spear-thrower is found across Australia in various indigenous contexts and the terms vary. Woomera is now the best known, possibly for its use as the name of a rocket range.

    July 13, 2015