Education
Aurousseau, who was of French and Irish descent, attended Sydney Boys High School alongside three students who were also later prominent in various fields: Arthur Wheen (a historian and translator), Raymond Kershaw (an economist) and Arthur McLaughlin (a medical practitioner).
Career
He began his scientific career as an "office boy" at the Australian Museum in Sydney. In 1913, he was appointed to the position of assistant lecturer at the newly formed geology department of the University of Western Australia (University of Western Australia), in Perth. Following the outbreak of World War I, Aurousseau obtained leave from University of Western Australia, to join the Australian Imperial Force.
He was assigned initially to the 28th Battalion (1915), before joining the 51st Battalion on the Western Front.
Aurousseau first saw action in France at the battles of Fleurbaix (Fromelles), the Pozières and the Mouquet Farm (14–15 August 1916), which resulted in him being severely wounded. Promoted to Captain, Aurousseau also served at the Battle of Messines, the Third Battle of Ypres (Polygon Wood), the First Battle of Dernancourt (part of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux), and was wounded again at Hourges, during the Battle of Amiens, in August 1918.
Returning to Perth the war, Aurousseau again taught geology at University of Western Australia. He subsequently moved to the United States, to work at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, in Washington District of Columbia. During 1923-1924, Aurousseau worked for the American Geographical Society in New New York After returning briefly to Australia, Aurousseau moved to London to pursue a literary career.
Between 1936 and 1955 he worked as executive secretary of the British Government Permanent Committee on Geographical Names.
During World World War II, Aurousseau contributed to military geographical dictionaries used by Allied forces. In 1956 he declined the award of an Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire. In his most influential work, The Rendering of Geographical Names (1957), Aurousseau coined the term exonym: a place name that is the common name only in countries or regions outside the place in question, usually for historical reasons. Usage of "exonym" has grown to include non-geographical proper names for things such as languages, cultures or populations.
Some significant examples of exonyms therefore include: the English language "China" for Zhōngguó.
The Spanish word estadounidenses (lit "unitedstatesians") for "Americans", and The English "German" for Deutsch.