I know what Zam-Buk ointment is. My question is, from where does the
name originate / what does it mean ?

Hi Casrom,

   "Rugby league television commentator Ray Warren recently referred
to the "zambuks" coming onto the field to treat an injured player.

'Zambuk' is rarely heard today, but was once in common use in
Australia and New Zealand to describe ambulance-men and first-aid
officers.

Stationed on the touchlines at representative and first grade games,
the 'zambuk' would race across the pitch to help an injured player.
They began to be replaced in the 1970s by 'trainers' and 'runners'.

The exact origins of the word itself are now long forgotten - though
there is a town in South Africa called Zambuk. "

"The product itself was an important first-aid medicine for any cuts
or abrasions of the skin. In a time long before anti-biotics, a
footballer could come to permanent grief merely from scraping his knee
on the ground and it becoming infected.

Zam-Buk was a recognised treatment that could successfully kill germs
that had entered the skin. Many of the Zam-Buk adverts used headlines
such as "Do you realise the danger of a poisoned finger? Death often
lurks in a cut."
http://rl1908.com/rugby-league/zam-buk.htm

See page 8
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/research/nzdc/documents/NZWords%20no5.pdf

"This is poorly exposed in Nigeria and merges with the Upper Benue
Trough. A subsurface basement high, the Zambuk Ridge, separates the
Southern Chad Basin from the Upper Benue. The Bima sandstone is the
oldest sedimentary deposit in the Chad Basin."
http://onlinenigeria.com/links/send.asp?blurb=505


"Albert Ephraums appointed his oldest son, Richard Lionel Ephraums
(born in 1876) as Manager of the NOH, and on his father?s death in
1904 Richard Lionel inherited the hotel. He was an exacting man,
inclined to remind underlings of their failings when they did not meet
his expectations; hence his family nickname of Zambuk, after a popular
ointment for aches and pains that advertised itself by the catchy
slogan, Rub it in!"
http://www.rootsweb.com/~lkawgw/noh.html

Hope this helps!

Sincerely, Crabcakes

Search Terms
============
Zambuk history
Zam-buk history
Zambuk name origin

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Request for Answer Clarification by casrom-ga on 05 Jan 2006 14:09 PST

Thanks. I remember reading some time ago that the original source of
the word was an aboriginal term meaning "medicine man". Is there any
source that supports this ?

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Clarification of Answer by crabcakes-ga on 05 Jan 2006 14:39 PST

Hello again Casrom,

See page 20 of this document. Not much extra information, but you
might try writing to these folks:
http://amol.org.au/hmm/pdfs/hmm20.pdf

Perhaps Roche will know the origin of the term:
http://www.biz-community.com/Account.aspx?c=70&l=196&ai=922

This is all the additional information I found using various search terms.

Regards, Crabcakes