Etymology
The official translation of Moomba is "let's get together and have fun."
The name was proposed for the event by Bill Onus, a former president of the Australian Aborigines League.
A long running rumour is that the name was a practical joke and actually means "up your bum". In 1969, Louise Hercus provided the following definition for 'mum' (i.e., 'moom') in The Languages of Victoria:
- Mum: bottom, rump. The jocular Healesville expression 'mum ba' — 'bottom and . . .' — has been given to the authorities in jest with the translation 'let us get together and have fun', hence the Melbourne Moomba Festival.
In 1981 Barry Blake in his Australian Aboriginal Languages spelled out the etymology in more detail:
- Undoubtedly the most unfortunate choice of a proper name from Aboriginal sources was made in Melbourne when the city fathers chose to name the city's annual festival 'Moomba'. The name is supposed to mean 'Let's get together and have fun', though one wonders how anyone could be naive enough to believe that all this can be expressed in two syllables. In fact 'moom' (mum) means 'buttocks' or 'anus' in various Victorian languages and 'ba' is a suffix that can mean 'at', 'in' or 'on'. Presumably someone has tried to render 'up your bum' in the vernacular.
However, there is some evidence that this profane etymology actually originated from a reporting error by Bill Onus' son Lin Onus in an interview after Bill's death in 1968. Lin Onus' wife Jo Onus reported that Lin was mistaken in the interview and the "up your bum" origin was inaccurate. According to Jo Onus, Bill Onus selected the word as a generic term for a ceremony (without the spiritual connotations of the more widely known word "corroboree"). Certainly, Bill Onus had previously used the word for a 1951 50-year jubilee of Federation aboriginal celebration named "Out of the Dark".
Similar words used in different Aboriginal languages mean "show", "making a noise", "thunder" or "dark". The etymology remains ambiguous.
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