Etymology
Mullum Mullum is adapted from Woiwurrung language and is thought to mean "place of many big birds" and led many historians to conclude that it meant "Place of Eagles". Many other interpretations have been suggested including; "place of many big swifts" or "place of many big owls" perhaps in reference to the Powerful Owls of the valley. Some historians suspect Mullum Mullum to be a mistranslation of another Wurundjeri expression Ballum Ballum meaning "place of many butterflies". Around the higher grassy woodlands there are large numbers of Butterfly and Moth species breeding in the grasslands, many of which have not yet been documented.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)