Dreamtime en · PROPN
Pronunciation
- /ˈdɹiːmtaɪm/
- (US) audio
Etymology
A false calque of Eastern Arrernte Altyerrenge (“the Dreaming”), based on the incorrect assumption that the word is related to altyerre (“a dream”) or altyerre areme (“to dream”). "-time" is an addition unrooted in Aboriginal language.
Meanings
-
(qualifier:Australian Aboriginal mythology) The time of the creation of the world, by the ancestors out of their own essence.
The tall slender birds were performing a legendary fight in the Dreamtime story – one that the old law had marked on them forever with a wattle of flaming red skin on the back of their heads.
2013, Alexis Wright, The Swan Book, Constable (2016), page 101:No, Brian Elliott's hobby-horse is not the Jindyworobaks' political links—it is his conviction that they are to be remembered and well respected for their awareness of Aboriginal myth and legend and for their understanding and symbolic poetical use of the alcheringa concept (the Dreamtime myth of the creation of geological Australia and its flora and fauna with the related religious and moral connotations of site-worship and animism) .
1980, Meanjin - Volume 39, page 402:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| dreamtime | alternative | lexicographic | |
| Dream Time | alternative | lexicographic | |
| Dream-time | alternative | lexicographic |
Relateds
Synonyms
Dreaming · Alcheringa · Alchera
Translations (5)
sh Sanjanje (time of creation of the world in Australian mythology) · fr Espaces de rêves (time of creation of the world in Australian mythology) · fi uniaika (time of creation of the world in Australian mythology) · xdk Nura (time of creation of the world in Australian mythology) · pjt Jukurrpa (time of creation of the world in Australian mythology)