SG Heritage Dictionary

Boomer [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. One who, or that which, booms.

2. A North American rodent, so named because it is said to make a booming noise. See Sewellel.

3. A large male kangaroo.

4. One who works up a "boom".

Boomerang [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A very singular missile weapon used by the natives of Australia and in some parts of India. It is usually a curved stick of hard wood, from twenty to thirty inches in length, from two to three inches wide, and half or three quarters of an inch thick. When thrown from the hand with a quick rotary motion, it describes very remarkable curves, according to the shape of the instrument and the manner of throwing it, often moving nearly horizontally a long distance, then curving upward to a considerable height, and finally taking a retrograde direction, so as to fall near the place from which it was thrown, or even far in the rear of it.

Boomerang Encyclopedia Britannica

BOOMERANG, a missile instrument of the Australian aborigines, in the use of which they are very dexterous. It consists of a piece of hard wood, with the curve of a parabola, and is about 2 feet long, 2∣ inches broad, ⅜ inch thick, and rounded at the extremities. One side is flat, the other is rounded, and it is brought to a bluntish edge. It is discharged with the hand by one end, the convex edge being forward and the flat side upwards. After advancing some distance, and ascending slowly in the air with a quick rotatory motion, it begins to retrograde, and finally falls to the ground behind the thrower. A weapon of similar form, but wanting the return flight, has been found in use among sιvage tribes both in India and Africa. A very full comparative account of the boomerang is contained in Colonel A. H. Lane Fox’s lecture on “Primitive Warfare” {Jour. of the Royal United Service Institution, vol. xii. No. 51).

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4, p. 48
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