: a tailless Australian animal with thick fur and big hairy ears, sharp claws for climbing, and a pouch like the kangaroo's for carrying its young
Word History of KOALA
The word koala was taken from a language called Dharuk, spoken by the native Australian people who lived around what is today Sydney, Australia, when the first Europeans landed there in 1788. The word was first written koolah, which was probably closer to the way it was pronounced in Dharuk. The spelling koala—which came to be read as three syllables rather than two—may originally have been someone's misspelling of the word.