mia-mia

American  

[mahy-uh-mahy-uh] / ˈmaɪ əˌmaɪ ə /

noun

1. a temporary, hutlike shelter built by Aboriginal tribes in Australia.

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mia mia British  

/ ˈmiːə ˈmiːə /

noun

1. a native Australian's hut

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Etymology

Origin of mia-mia

First recorded in 1835–45; from Ganay or Kurnai (Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in Gippsland, Victoria), recorded as mai-mai “camp, hut”

Example Sentences

A woodchopper returning from his work told us that he found on a hill, some distance away, a rude mia-mia or wind shelter made of the branches of a wild cherry tree.

From The Land of the Kangaroo Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through the Great Island Continent by Knox, Thomas Wallace

I am so weak as to be incapable of crawling out of the mia-mia.

From Successful Exploration Through the Interior of Australia by Wills, William John

But the devil-devil came and sat down by King Jimmie's side one night, so he, too, moved out across the Old Man border, and the mia-mia rotted into the ground and the grass grew there.

From Over the Sliprails by Lawson, Henry

Here they found King sitting alone in the mia-mia the natives had made for him, wasted and worn to a shadow, almost imbecile from the terrible hardships he had suffered.

From The Red True Story Book by Ford, H. J. (Henry Justice)

King had already buried the rest of the field-books near the mia-mia.

From The Red True Story Book by Ford, H. J. (Henry Justice)