wilgie means A red ochre traditionally used as a pigment by the Aboriginal Nyunga people. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “wilgie” is a great word
WILGIE — [Noun] A specific red ochre pigment, traditionally mined and prepared by the Aboriginal Nyunga people of southwestern Australia. Borrowed from Nyunga wilgi; first attested in English in 1835. Unlike "ochre" (a broad geological term) or "vermilion" (an imported, processed mineral), wilgie is a local substance woven into ritual and law. It is the raw earth ground smooth on a flat stone, the ceremonial line drawn across a dancer’s chest, the deep stain on the rock of a sacred site—a map of country made from the country itself.
noun
- A red ochre traditionally used as a pigment by the Aboriginal Nyunga people.“[…] round these fires were squatted the dark forms of men and women, unclad, save with the loose folds of an opossum rug, and unadorned save with a fish or other bone thrust through the cartilage of the nose, or the pendulums of the ears, and with wilgie and with paint.”