jillaroo

1 9.9

A young woman who trains to work on a farm with cows or sheep in Australia

noun

Australian

: jillaroo

Many jillaroos work during the summer months.

Examples

The life of a jillaroo involves early mornings and hard physical work.
Many jillaroos learn valuable skills while working on remote cattle farms.
After finishing school, she became a jillaroo on a large sheep station in Queensland.
The jillaroo learned how to herd sheep.
The jillaroo worked hard to learn how to manage the flock of sheep on the farm.
As a jillaroo, she spent long days helping to round up cattle in the hot Australian sun.
During her training, the jillaroo developed skills in horseback riding and caring for the animals.

Synonyms

hired woman

vsjillaroo

1 4.1

A woman who works on a farm or ranch for pay

is specifically a trainee role rather than just an employed laborer

farmerette

vsjillaroo

Archaic

1 9.4

A woman who works in fields to grow crops

is a trainee position on livestock farms in Australia

Surface Forms

jillaroo singular

jillaroo plural

jillaroos plural

Morphology

jillaroo = jackaroo (semi-transparent) = jill + aroo

Formed by replacing the male term 'jack' with the female name 'Jill' in 'jackaroo'; the relation to 'jackaroo' is clear to those who know that word but '-aroo' is not a widely productive suffix for learners.

Etymology

The word jillaroo comes from the older Australian word jackaroo, which meant a young man training on a sheep or cattle farm. People made jillaroo by using Jill instead of Jack, like the pair 'Jack and Jill', to show a woman doing the same hard farm work.