English

A 19th-century gouache painting by an unidentified Indian artist of a camel, perhaps being ridden by a soldier, from the collection of the Wellcome Library, London, UK

Noun

oont ‎(plural oonts)

1. (India (Anglo-Indian), Australia, colloquial) A camel. [from 19th c.]
   • 1889–1891, Rudyard Kipling, “Oonts (North India Transport Train)”, in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses, 3rd edition, London: Methuen & Co. 18 Bury Street, W.C., published 1892, OCLC 1961672, page 27:

     Wot makes the soldier's 'eart to penk, wot makes 'im to perspire? / It isn't standin' up to charge nor lyin' down to fire; / But it's everlastin' waitin' on an everlastin' road / For the commissariat camel an' 'is commissariat load. / O the oont [footnote: Camel:—oo is pronounced like u as in 'bull,' but by Mr. Atkins to rhyme with 'front.'], O the oont, O the commissariat oont! / With 'is silly neck a-bobbin' like a basket full o' snakes; / We packs 'im like an idol, an' you ought to 'ear 'im grunt, / An' when we gets 'im loaded up 'is blessed girth-rope breaks.

References

• “oont”, in the Collins English Dictionary (CollinsDictionary.com), retrieved 2 November 2016.