List of English words of Niger-Congo origin
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 )
gilo - from Kimbundu njilu , via Portuguese jiló
gumbo – from Bantu (Kimbundu ingombo , plural of kingombo , 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
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