emu

Etymology 1

Probably from Portuguese ema (“(originally) cassowary; giant rhea; (now) ostrich”).

noun

1. (obsolete) A cassowary (genus Casuarius).
   https://books.google.com/books?id=PZw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1 page 1 1. EGGES. Caſſawary, or Emeu, vide Aldrov: p. 542. Harveum, G.A. p. 61. […] https://books.google.com/books?id=PZw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA3 page 3 4. CLAWES. […] A legge and claw of the Caſſawary or Emeu that dyed at S. James’s, Weſtminſter. 1656, John Tradescant [the elder], “Some Kindes of Birds Their Egges, Beaks, Feathers, Clawes, and Spurres”, in Musæum Tradescantianum: Or, A Collection of Rarities. Preserved at South-Lambeth neer London by John Tradescant, London: Printed by John Grismond, and are to be sold by Nathanael Brooke[…], →OCLC, pages 1 and 3
   It is a native both of the Eaſt and Weſt Indies; and all the writers on birds have deſscribed it. Aldrovand Ulisse Aldrovandi] calls it Emeu ſive Eme; Boulius, Emeu vulgo Caſoarius; and others, Caſſuarus. 1752, John Hill, “CASUARIUS. [The Cassowary.]”, in An History of Animals.[…], London: Printed for Thomas Osborne,[…], →OCLC, page 482
2. A large flightless bird native to Australia, Dromaius novaehollandiae.
   From New Holland the emeu, / With his better moiety, / Has paid a visit to the Zo- / ological Society. 1829, “The Progress of Zoology”, in T[homas] Crofton Croker, editor, The Christmas Box. An Annual Present to Young Persons, London: John Ebers and Co. 27 Old Bond Street; Philadelphia, Pa.: Thomas Wardle, →OCLC, page 176
   I left my young emeus […] just parted from their affectionate father, and not yet fully reconciled to beginning the world on their own account. 4 June 1864, William Bennett, “Acclimation and Breeding of Emeus (Dromius irroratus, Bartlett) in Surrey”, in Edward Newman, editor, The Zoologist: A Popular Miscellany of Natural History, volume XXII, London: John Van Voorst,[…], →OCLC, chapter II
   A stranger cannot but remark, throughout the pastoral districts of Australia, how seldom he sees sheep as he travels along. […] It may be that he will also expect emus and kangaroos, and he will generally be disappointed also in regard to them. Kangaroos I certainly have seen in great numbers, though by no means so often as I expected. An emu running wild I never did see. Tame emus round the houses in towns are very common, and of emus’ eggs there is a plethora. 1873, Anthony Trollope, “Wool”, in Australia and New Zealand. … In Two Volumes, volume II, London: Chapman and Hall,[…], →OCLC, pages 219–220
   Both cassowaries and emus are large, flightless, cursorial birds with diminutive wings. […] Emus, the world's second largest living birds, live in Australia and are the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. 2015, Sankar Chatterjee, “The Avian Revolution Begins”, in The Rise of Birds: 225 Million Years of Evolution, 2nd edition, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, page 191

Etymology 2

From e(lectro)m(agnetic) u(nit).

noun

1. (physics) Initialism of electromagnetic unit.
   A bar magnet NS has poles of strength 144 emu, 5 cm apart. 1941, Henry A[ugustus Perkins], edited by E[dward] U[hler] Condon, College Physics (Prentice-Hall Physics Series), New York, N.Y.: Prentice-Hall, →OCLC, page 403
   Rock Magnetic Properties as Related to a Magnetometer Profile for Serpentines, Sierra Nevada, California / DuBOIS, ROBERT L., Dept. Geology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. / The remanent magnetism of a suite of specimens from a serpentine mass in the Sierra Nevada, California, has a declination of N. 32°E. and an inclination of plus 84°. The average intensity is 80 × 10⁻⁵ emu/cc. 1962, “Abstracts of Papers Submitted for the Meeting in Houston: November 12–14, 1962”, in Geological Society of America: Abstracts for 1962: Abstracts of Papers Submitted for Six Meetings with which the Society was Associated (Special GSA Papers; no. 73), New York, N.Y.: Geological Society of America, published 1963, →OCLC, page 141
   The amount of charge named by one emu is that which produces a unit magnetic effect when flowing in a current at one unit length per second. 1974, William Berkson, “Maxwell’s Field Theory”, in Fields of Force: The Development of a World View from Faraday to Einstein, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; republished Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2014, page 168
   Early investigations showed no detectable magnetic intensity in tektite glass, at the level of about 10⁻⁴ emu/g. (To convert measurements in emu/g to S.I., multiply by 10³.) 1976, John Aloysius O’Keefe, Tektites and Their Origin (Developments in Petrology; 4), Amsterdam, New York, N.Y.: Elsevier Scientific Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 109
   Experimentally the magnetic moment is usually given in units of emu/g, emu/cm³ or emu/mole. 2005, Peter Mohn, “Experimental Basis of Ferromagnetism”, in Magnetism in the Solid State: An Introduction (Solid-State Sciences), Berlin: Springer-Verlag, →ISSN, page 39

Etymology 3

From emu(lator).

noun

1. (computing, video games, informal) Clipping of emulator.
   Saw this article for playing downloadable games on GBA. It's an official Nintendo product in Japan, and thought it might be useful for Nintendo to release actual emus and some of their older game properties (beyond the $20 classic series). 24 February 2005, Dane L. Galden, “Could this be used for classic emus on GBA?”, in rec.games.video.classic (Usenet), message-ID <9XkTd.5830$Ba3.2608@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net>