From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of
English language words that come from the
Niger-Congo languages .
It excludes
placenames except where they have become common words.
Bantu origin
banjo – probably
Bantu mbanza [
citation needed ]
basenji – breed of dog from the Congo
boma – probably from Swahili
bwana – from Swahili, meaning an important person or safari leader
chimpanzee – loaned in the 18th century from a Bantu language, possibly
Kivili ci-mpenzi .
[1]
dengue – possibly from
Swahili dinga
goober – possibly from Bantu (
Kikongo and
Kimbundu nguba )
gumbo – from Bantu (Kimbundu ngombo meaning "okra")
impala – from
Zulu im-pala
impi – from
Zulu language meaning war, battle or a regiment
indaba – from
Xhosa or
Zulu languages – 'stories' or 'news' typically conflated with 'meeting' (often used in South African English)
isango –
Zulu meaning gateway
jumbo – from Swahili (jambo or jumbe or from
Kongo nzamba "elephant")
kalimba
Kwanzaa – recent coinage (
Maulana Karenga 1965) as the name of a "specifically African-American holiday", abstracted from a
Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza , meaning "
first fruits [of the harvest]".
lapa – from
Sotho languages – enclosure or barbecue area (often used in South African English)
macaque – from Bantu makaku through Portuguese and French
mamba – from Zulu or Swahili mamba
marimba – from Bantu (Kimbundu and Swahili marimba , malimba )
okapi – from a language in the Congo
safari – from
Swahili travel , ultimately from
Arabic
sangoma – from
Zulu – traditional healer (often used in South African English)
tilapia – Possibly a latinization "thiape", the
Tswana word for fish.
[2]
tsetse – from a Bantu language (
Tswana tsetse ,
Luhya tsiisi )
ubuntu –
Nguni term for "mankind; humanity", in South Africa since the 1980s also used capitalized,
Ubuntu , as the name of a philosophy or ideology of "human kindness" or "humanism".
vuvuzela – musical instrument, name of Zulu or Nguni origin
zebra – of unknown origin, recorded since c. 1600, possibly from a
Congolese language, or alternatively from Amharic.
zombie – likely from West African (compare Kikongo zumbi "fetish", Kimbundu nzambi "god")
Non-Bantu West African origin
azawakh - probably from
Fula or
Tuareg . A breed of dogs from West and North Africa
banana –
West African , possibly
Wolof banana
bongo – West African boungu
buckra – "white man or person", from
Efik and
Ibibio mbakara
[3]
chigger – possibly from Wolof and/or
Yoruba jiga "insect"
cola – from West African languages (
Temne kola ,
Mandinka kolo )
djembe – from West African languages
jazz – from West African languages (Mandinka jasi , Temne yas )
jive – possibly from Wolof jev
juke,
jukebox – possibly from Wolof and
Bambara dzug through
Gullah
kwashiorkor – from Ga language, Coastal
Ghana meaning "swollen stomach"
Marímbula , plucked musical instrument (lamellophone) of the Caribbean islands
merengue (dance) possibly from Fulani mererek i meaning to shake or quiver
mumbo jumbo – from Mandingo name Maamajombo, a masked dancer
mojo – from
Kongo “moyo” meaning “spirit”
obeah – from West African (Efik ubio ,
Twi ebayifo )
okra – from
Igbo ókùrù
sambo – Fula sambo meaning "uncle"
tango – probably from Ibibio tamgu
tote – West African via Gullah
vodou – from West African languages (
Ewe and
Fon vodu "spirit")
yam – West African (Fula nyami , Twi anyinam )
References
Notes
^ "chimpanzee" in American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2011.
^
Tilapia etymology
^ Mason, Julian (1960). "The Etymology of 'Buckaroo' ". American Speech . 35 (1): 51–55.
doi :
10.2307/453613 .
JSTOR
453613 .
Sources
Africa Americas Asia Europe
Oceania