User:Linshee/English words of African origin

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Afroasiatic

Berber

• aoudad – from some Berber language. A wild North African caprid.
• argan – from Central Atlas Tamazight ⴰⵔⴳⴰⵏ (targan), from Tashelhit. A tree endemic to Morocco.
• assegai – from Proto-Berber *zaġāya ("spear"). A slim hardwood spear with an iron tip.
• azawakh – possibly from a Tuareg langauge. A breed of dog from West and North Africa
• couscous – from Ouargli ⵙⴽⵙⵓ (seksu), from Tashelhit. A North African pasta made of crushed and steamed semolina.

Chadic

• acha – from Hausa acca. A grass species cultivated in West Africa.
• goje – from Hausa goge. A one- or two-stringed fiddle made of a gourd or calabash.

Cushitic

• gerenuk – from Somali garanuug. A long-necked antelope found in the Horn of Africa.

Egyptian

• adobe – from ḏbt

  ("brick, block, ingot"). A building material made of earth or other organic materials.
• ammonia – from jmn ("Amun"). A gaseous compound of hydrogen and nitrogen. Named a such because it was first found near a temple of Amun.
• anise – from jnst (probably "anise"). A flowering plant whose seeds are often used as a spice.
• barge – from bꜣjr ("transport ship"). A flat-bottomed boat.
• basalt – from bḫn ("a hard rock"). A common igneous rock.
• ebony – from hbnj ("ebony wood; ebony tree"). A dense black hardwood.
• gum – from qmyt ("acanthus resin, gum"). A sticky substance.
• ibis – from hbj ("ibis"). A long-legged wading bird.
• ivory – from ꜣbw ("elephant; ivory"). Hard, white material from the tusks of elephants and other animals.
• lily – from ḥrrt ("flower; blossom"). A common flower.
• oasis – from wḥꜣt ("cauldron"). A spring of fresh water in a desert.
• pharaoh – from pr ꜥꜣ ("palace; pharaoh"). A supreme ruler of Ancient Egypt.
• phoenix – from bnw ("grey heron"). A mythological bird that is born again after death.

Coptic

• halloumi – from ϩⲁⲗⲱⲙ (halōm, "cheese"). A semi-hard Cypriot cheese made of goat's and sheep's milk.
• skete – from Ϣⲓϩⲏⲧ (Šihēt). A type of hermitage in Eastern Christianity.

Semitic

Arabic

• bendir – from Moroccan Arabic بَنْدِير‎ (bendīr). A type of frame drum used in Morocco and other parts of North Africa.
• cotton – from Egyptian Arabic قُطُن‎ (quṭūn). A plant that is harvested and used as a fabric or cloth.
• djellaba – from Moroccan Arabic جلابة‎ (jellāba). A loose-fitting, ankle-length hooded robe worn by men in North Africa.
• doum palm – from Moroccan Arabic دوم (dawm). A palm tree with edible oval fruit.
• halloumi – from Egyptian Arabic حلوم (ḥālūm). A semi-hard Cypriot cheese made of goat's and sheep's milk.
• kif – from Moroccan Arabic كِيف‎ (kif, "opiate"). A kind of cannabis smoked in Morocco and Algeria, for narcotic or intoxicating effect.
• loofah – from Egyptian Arabic لُوفَة‎ (lūfa). A tropical vine whose spongy interior is dried and used as a bathing sponge.
• marabout – from Moroccan Arabic مْرَابِط‎ (mrabeṭ). A Muslim religious leader and teacher in West and North Africa.
• mhorr – from Moroccan Arabic مهر (mhor). A large gazelle native to the Sahara desert.
• shadoof – from Egyptian Arabic شادوف‎ (shādūf). A device used to gather water, consisting of a pivoted stick with a bucket on the end of it.
• shisha – from Egyptian Arabic شيشة (šīša). An Arab water-pipe, or hookah.

Ethiopian

• abugida – from Geʽez አቡጊዳ (ʾäbugida "Geʽez script"). A type of segmental writing system.
• ensete – from Geʽez እንሰት (inset). Flowering plants part of the banana family.
• gelada – from Amharic ጭላዳ (č̣əlada). A species of Old World monkey.
• jilbab – from Geʽez ግልባብ (gəlbab, "covering, veil, wrapper"). A long, loosely-fitting coat worn by some Muslim women.
• shifta – from Amharic ሽፍታ (šəfta). An outlaw, especially in Eastern Africa.
• teff – from Amharic ጤፍ (ṭēff). A type of lovegrass native to Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Austronesian

• aye-aye – from Malagasy aiay. A small, rodent-like lemur.
• babakoto – from Malagasy babakoto. A large lemur, an indri.
• coua – from Malagasy koa. A type of large, terrestrial birds in the cuckoo family.
• indri – from Malagasy endira. A large lemur.
• tangena – from Malagasy. A tree known for its highly toxic nuts.
• tenrec – from Malagasy tandraka, trandrake via French. A small mammal belonging to the Tenrecidae family.
• valiha – from Malagasy. A type of zither made of bamboo.
• vontsira – from Malagasy vontsira. The name for two different small, mongoose-like mammals.

Indo-European

Main article: List of English words of Afrikaans origin

Khoe

• buchu – from Nama buku. Several herbal species prized for their fragrance and medicinal use.
• gnu – from Nama. A large antelope with curved horns native to Africa.
• naras – from Nama !naras ("naras fruit"). A melon that grows in Namibia.
• oribi – from Nama orab. A small African antelope.
• tsamma – from some Khoe language. A bitter melon.

Niger–Congo

• cola – from some Niger–Congo language. The kola plant, famous for its nut, or one of these nuts. Also: A beverage or a drink made with kola nut flavoring, caramel and carbonated water.

Atlantic-Congo

Kwa

• aboma – from Fante aboma ("large constricting snake"). Any of the large South American serpents from the genus Boa or related genera.
• kente – from Twi. A type of fabric made of interwoven cloth strips, native to Ghana.
• kwashiorkor – from Ga kwàṣìɔkɔ́ ("the sickness the older child gets when the next baby is born"). A form of malnutrition, found in children, caused by dietary insufficiency of protein in combination with a high carbohydrate diet.
• shito – from a Ga word meaning "pepper". A spicy Ghanaian sauce made with seafood, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, and spices.

Senegambian

• akonting – from Jola-Fonyi. The folk lute of the Jola people of West Africa.
• azawakh - possibly from Fula. A breed of dog from West and North Africa
• banana – from Wolof banaana ("banana") via Spanish or Portuguese. An elongated curved tropical fruit that grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin.
• chigger – from earlier chigoe, possibly from Wolof or Yoruba jiga ("insect"). A small tropical flea.
• fonio – from Wolof foño. A cereal cultivated in Western Africa.
• khaya – from Wolof khaye ("African mahogany tree"). Any tree of the genus Khaya.
• mbalax – from a Wolof word meaning "rhythm". A genre of popular dance music chiefly performed in Senegal and The Gambia.
• nitta – from Fula nétě, from Mandinka. A tropical tree that has edible pods and seeds.
• thieboudienne – from Wolof ceebu jën via French thiéboudiène. A traditional dish from Senegal, consisting of fish and rice with tomato sauce.
• xalam – from Wolof. A traditional lute-like string instrument of West Africa.

Volta–Congo

Bantu

• abakwetha – from Xhosa abakwetha. A young Xhosa man undergoing the ritual initiation in to manhood.
• agogwe – from Kuria agogwe. A purported small human-like biped reported from the forests of East Africa.
• akalat – from Bulu akalat. Any of several species of African birds in the genus Sheppardia.
• amafufunyana – from Zulu. In Zulu and Xhosa culture, a mental disorder in which the sufferer is believed to have been possessed by evil spirits, causing hysteria.
• amasi, maas – from Zulu amasi ("curdled or soured milk"). Fermented milk that tastes like cottage cheese or plain yogurt.
• askari – from Swahili askari ("soldier"). A member of a local African military or police unit, usually one serving in a European colonial force.
• basenji – from Lingala. A breed of dog from Central Africa.
• banjo – perhaps from Bantu mbanza. A stringed instrument.
• bao – from Swahili bao ("board; goal; board game"). A mancala board game played in East Africa.
• boda boda – from Swahili bodaboda, itself from English border. A bicycle or motorcycle used as a taxi.
• bongo – probably from Lokele boungu, via American Spanish bongó. A pair of small drums.
• boma – from Swahili boma. An enclosure usually made of thorn bushes, and latterly of steel fencing, for protection from marauders.
• bwana – from Swahili bwana ("master"), from Arabic. A big boss, important person.
• chama – from Swahili chama ("organization; society"). An informal cooperative society, usually for pooling and investing savings.
• chikungunya – from Makonde chikungunya ("that which bends up", referring to the arthritic effects of the disease). A viral fever caused by the Chikungunya virus, an alphavirus spread by mosquito bites.
• chimpanzee – from some Bantu language, possibly Vili ci-mpenzi. A great ape of the genus Pan, native to Africa, and believed by biologists to be the closest extant relative to humans.
• cocopan – from Nguni nqukumbana. A small minecart.
• dagga – from Shona. Earthen plaster.
• dengue – possibly from Swahili dinga ("sudden attack; seizure") via Spanish. An acute febrile mosquito-borne tropical disease.
• duppy – from Bube dupe ("ghost"). A Caribbean ghost or spirit, often appearing in the form of a dog barking or howling through the night.
• gacaca – from Kinyarwanda. A system of community justice inspired by Rwandan tradition, used more recently in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
• goober – from Kongo nguba ("peanut"). A peanut.
• gqom – from Zulu. A minimalistic style of house music from South Africa.
• gumbo – from Bantu ngombo, kingombo ("okra plant"). A soup or stew made with okra.
• hakuna matata – from Swahili hakuna matata ("there are no worries"). A phrase meaning "no worries; take it easy". Popularized by Disney's The Lion King.
• harambee – from Swahili harambee ("let's pull together!"). A traditional Kenyan community self-help event or organization.
• imbabala – from some Bantu language. A bushbuck, Tragelaphus sylvaticus, one of two species, ranging more into southern and eastern Africa than the other species, the harnessed bushbuck.
• impala – from Zulu impala. An African antelope, Aepyceros melampus, noted for its leaping ability; the male has ridged, curved horns.
• impi – from Zulu impi ("war, battle, army"). A group of Zulu (or other Bantu) warriors; a detachment of armed men.
• indaba – from Zulu indaba ("matter, issue, affair") A tribal conference held by Nguni leaders.
• indlamu – from Zulu indlamu. A traditional Zulu dance from South Africa in which the dancer lifts one foot over the head and brings it down hard, landing squarely on the downbeat.
• inDuna – from Zulu induna ("male animal; headman"). A South African tribal councillor or headman (under the king); someone in authority, a boss.
• inyanga – from Zulu] inyanga ("moon; month"). A traditional Zulu doctor or healer.
• isibongo – from Zulu isibongo ("surname; clan name"). A complimentary metonym used to describe members of a Zulu clan.
• jenga – from Swahili jenga ("to build, construct"). A game where players try to remove a block from a tower of wooden blocks without toppling the tower.
• jumbo – from the name of Jumbo, a large elephant, from Swahili jambo ("hello") and jumbe ("chief"). Very large or powerful.
• jumbie – from Kongo zumbi ("fetish"). A Caribbean ghost or evil spirit.
• kabaka – from Luganda akabaka. The title of the king of Buganda.
• kadogo – from Swahili kadogo ("little one"). A child soldier, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• kanga – from Swahili kanga ("kanga; guinea fowl"). A colourful printed cotton garment worn by women in East Africa.
• kanzu – from Swahili kanzu. A white or cream-coloured robe worn by men in the African Great Lakes region.
• kikoi – from Swahili kikoi. A traditional rectangle of woven cloth originating from eastern Africa.
• kizomba – from Kimbundu kizomba ("party").
• kgosi – from Tswana kgosi. A tribal chief among the Tswana people of southern Africa.
• kgotla – from Tswana kgotla. Any of several types of public meetings in a Botswana village, especially involving a gathering of tribal elders; also the place where such a meeting is held.
• kongamato – from a Kaonde word meaning "breaker of boats". A pterosaur-like cryptid of Africa.
• kongoni – from Swahili kongoni ("gnu; hartebeest; topi") A type of hartebeest from East Africa.
• konzo – from Yaka. An epidemic paralytic disease associated with excessive consumption of cassava, which contains cyanide.
• kwacha – from Chichewa kwacha ("it has dawned"). The name of the currency of Malawi and Zambia.
• kwela – from Zulu -khwela ("get up"). A style of music, first played in the townships, whose principal instrument is the penny whistle.
• lechwe – from Tswana, or from Sotho letsa ("antelope"). Kobus leche, an African antelope that inhabits marshy regions.
• lekgotla – from Tswana lekgotla ("a public place where consultation and judicial proceedings are conducted"). A consultative process between groups pursuing a common goal.
• likembe – from Lingala likembé. A musical instrument found in sub-Saharan Africa; a kind of lamellophone.
• lilangeni – from Swazi lilangeni. The currency of Swaziland.
• lobola – from Xhosa, Zulu lobola. The bride price among certain Bantu peoples of South Africa.
• loti – from Sotho loti ("mountain"). The basic monetary unit of the currency of the Kingdom of Lesotho.
• macumba – from Kimbundu makôba. A religious cult, having elements of sorcery, ritual dance and fetishes, from Brazil.
• mandazi – from Swahili mandaazi. A form of fried bread from eastern Africa.
• mahewu – from Zulu amaHewu. A sour beverage from Africa, made from cornmeal.
• makoro – from Tswana makoro. A dugout canoe, especially as used in the Okavango Swamps of Botswana.
• makossa – from a Duala word meaning ("I dance"). A music genre from Cameroon, with a strong bass rhythm and prominent horn section.
• mamba – from Zulu imamba. Any of various venomous snakes of the genus Dendroaspis, native to Africa, that live in trees.
• marabunta – from Kimbundu marimbonda ("Sceliphron spirifex"). The name of several large wasps known for their painful stings.
• marimba – from some Bantu language, perhaps Kimbundu marimba ("xylophone"). A musical instrument similar to a xylophone but clearer in pitch.
• matatu – from Swahili matutu ("three"), based on the original price of three shillings. A privately-owned minibus serving as share taxis.
• matoke – from Luganda matooke. Mashed boiled bananas or plantains, a staple food in Uganda.
• mbaqanga – from Zulu mbaqanga. A style of South African music, with rural Zulu roots and a jazz influence, that originated in the 1960s.
• mbube – from Zulu umbube ("lion"). A style of a cappella choral music originating among the Zulus of South Africa.
• mbuna – from Tonga mbuna ("cichlid"). One of a group of haplochromine cichlids from Lake Malawi.
• mganga – from Swahili mganga. An African witch doctor.
• miombo – from Bemba miombo. Any tree of the genus Brachystegia.
• miraa – from Swahili miraa. Khat.
• mopane – from Tswana mopane. A tree, Colophospermum mopane, native to southern Africa.
• moqueca – from Kimbundu mukeka. A Brazilian stew based on fish, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and cilantro.
• motlopi – from Tswana motlopi. An evergreen tree native to southern and tropical Africa, Boscia albitrunca; one of the most important forage trees of the Kalahari.
• mpingo – from Swahili mpingo ("ebony tree"}. A small African tree in the family Fabaceae.
• msasa – from Shona musasa. A tree of Central Africa, Brachystegia spiciformis.
• muti – from Zulu umuthi. ("tree, wood, medicine"). Traditional Southern African medicine.
• mwenge – from Luganda omwenge. An alcoholic drink of Uganda, made with fermented bananas and sorghum.
• mvule – from Swahili mvule. A tropical African tree yielding iroko wood.
• mzee – from Swahili mzee. An honorific for elders.
• mzungu – from Swahili mzungu ("wanderer"). A white person in East Africa.
• nagana – from Zulu ulunakane, unakane. A disease of vertebrates in southern Africa, characterised by swelling and lethargy and caused by trypanosomes transmitted by tsetse flies.
• nkisi – from Kongo nkisi ("spirit, charm"). A spirit, or an object inhabited by a spirit, in Bantu religious beliefs.
• nyala – probably from Tsonga nyala. A southern African antelope, Tragelaphus angasii.
• pombe – from Swahili pombe. Millet beer.
• posho – from Swahili posho ("rations"), itself from English portion. A food product made of cornmeal.
• pula – from Tswana, Northern Sotho, Sotho pula. Rain. Also: the currency of Botswana.
• quilombo – from Kimbundu kilombo. A remote, inland settlement originally settled by fugitive slaves (or others).
• rungu – from Swahili rungu. A wooden throwing club or baton used in certain East African tribal cultures.
• sadza – from Shona sadza. A cooked, pulverized grain meal (stiff porridge) that is the staple food in Zimbabwe.
• sangoma – from Zulu isangoma. A South African witch doctor, traditional herbalist, or traditional healer.
• shongololo – from Xhosa, Zulu ukushonga ("to roll up"). A millipede.
• safari – from Swahili safari ("journey"), from Arabic. A trip into any undeveloped area to see, photograph or hunt wild animals in their own environment.
• sengi – from Swahili sengi. An elephant shrew.
• shetani – from Swahili shetani. An evil spirit from East African mythology, often the subject of artwork.
• shifta – from Swahili shifta. An outlaw, especially in Eastern Africa.
• shilingi – from Swahili shilingi, itself from English shilling.
• shweshwe – from Sotho seShoeshoe, named after Moshoeshoe I. A patterned South African fabric.
• tilapia – a latinization of Tswana tlhapi ("fish"). Any of various edible fish, of the genus Tilapia, native to Africa and the Middle East but naturalized worldwide.
• thebe – from Tswana thebe ("shield"). 1/100 of a Botswana pula, the currency of Botswana.
• toyi-toyi – from Northern Ndebele and Shona. A dance from southern Africa, used especially during political protests.
• tsetse – from Tswana tsêtsê. Any fly of the genus Glossina, native to Africa, that feeds on human and animal blood; known primarily as a carrier of parasitic trypanosomes.
• ubuntu – from Xhosa, Zulu ubuntu. A South African ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other.
• umqombothi – from Xhosa. A beer made from maize, maize malt, sorghum malt, yeast and water, commonly found in South Africa.
• vuvuzela – from Zulu vuvuzela ("to make a vu vu noise"). A trumpet-shaped horn, now usually plastic, that produces a loud buzzing sound.
• zombie – from some Bantu language. A person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces (such as magic), with no soul or will of his/her own.

Cross River

• buckra – from Efik or Ibibio mbakara. A white person.

Volta–Niger

• bocor – from Fon bokono. A voodoo practitioner who deals with malefic as well as beneficial effects; a sorcerer.
• chigger – from earlier chigoe, possibly from Yoruba or Wolof jiga ("insect"). A small tropical flea.

Mande

• nitta – from Mandinka nété. A tropical tree that has edible pods and seeds

Nilo-Saharan

• nanga – from Acholi naŋa. A simple harp used in central and eastern Africa.
• nyatiti – from Luo nyatiti. A traditional eight-stringed lyre.
• okapi – from Mvuba okapi. A large ruminant mammal native to the rainforests of the Congo.

Creoles and pidgins

• guyman – from Nigerian Pidgin guyman ("boy; cunning person"). A fraudster involved in an advance free scam.
• khazi – possibly from Mediterranean Lingua Franca, via Polari and Italian. An outhouse, lavatory, toilet.
• oyinbo – from Nigerian Pidgin oyinbo, from a Yoruba word literally meaning "peeled-off skin". A white person.
• tosheroon – from Mediterranean Lingua Franca, from Italian. A half-crown coin.