page_title: Dingo
section_title: Etymology, synonyms, and usage
hierarchical_section_title: Dingo / Etymology, synonyms, and usage
caption_attribution_description: English: A portrait of a large Dog from New Holland (Dingo) by George Stubbs, 1772
context_page_description: The dingo is a dog found in Australia. Its taxonomic classification is debated. It is a medium-sized canine that possesses a lean, hardy body adapted for speed, agility, and stamina. The dingo's three main coat colourations are light ginger or tan, black and tan, or creamy white. The skull is wedge-shaped and appears large in proportion to the body.
  The earliest known dingo fossil, found in Western Australia, dates to 3,450 years ago, which led to the presumption that dingoes came to Australia with seafarers prior to that time, possibly from south-west Sulawesi in modern-day Indonesia. Dingo morphology has not changed over the past 3,500 years: this suggests that no artificial selection has been applied over this period.
  The dingo is closely related to the New Guinea singing dog: their lineage split early from the lineage that led to today's domestic dogs, and can be traced back through the Malay Archipelago to Asia.
context_section_description: The name "dingo" comes from the Dharug language used by the Indigenous Australians of the Sydney area. 
  The first British colonists to arrive in Australia in 1788 established a settlement at Port Jackson and noted "dingoes" living with indigenous Australians. The name was first recorded in 1789 by Watkin Tench in his Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay:
  The only domestic animal they have is the dog, which in their language is called Dingo, and a good deal resembles the fox dog of England. These animals are equally shy of us, and attached to the natives. One of them is now in the possession of the Governor, and tolerably well reconciled to his new master.
  The variants include "tin-go" for a bitch, "din-go" for a dog, and "wo-ri-gal" for a big dog. The dingo has been given different names in the Indigenous Australian languages, including "boolomo, dwer-da, joogoong, kal, kurpany, maliki, mirigung, noggum, papa-inura, and wantibirri. Some authors propose that a difference existed between camp dingoes and wild dingoes as they had different names among indigenous tribes. The people of the Yarralin, Northern Territory region frequently call those dingoes that live with them walaku, and those that live in the wilderness ngurakin. They also use the name walaku to refer to both dingoes and dogs. The colonial settlers of New South Wales wrote using the name dingo only for camp dogs. It is proposed that in New South Wales the camp dingoes only became wild after the collapse of Aboriginal society.
caption: Portrait of a Large Dog from New Holland by George Stubbs, 1772. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
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