> > Isn't it true that Kangaroo is Aboriginal for 'I don't know'?
>
> I've heard that it means "I don't understand you." The conversation between
> Capt. Cook and an aboriginal was said to go like this:
>
> Cook: *pointing to a kangaroo* What's that?
> Aboriginal: Kangaroo(I don't understand you).

According to a book I read (by a linguist who is also an Aborigine, so presumably she knew what she was talking about), it's a myth.

For one thing, Captain Cook didn't go around asking natives what things were called; he had people to do that for him. :o)

The other thing is that "kangaroo", or the closest actual word in the language of the area Cook visited, is actually a word meaning a kind of kangaroo. But only one specific kind, and excluding most species that are now called kangaroos.
Whoever the questioner was did manage to get the question across, but apparently didn't realise that the natives didn't have a general name for all large hopping mammals with pockets.

Paul