ngamia

Swahili

Etymology

An old borrowing, ultimately from Arabic جَمَل (jamal).[1] Compare Yao ngamila, Chichewa ngamira.

Pronunciation
  • Audio (Kenya)(file)

Noun

ngamia (n class, plural ngamia)

  1. camel
    Synonym: (poetic) jamali
  2. (derogatory) idiot
    Synonym: ng'ombe

Descendants
  • → Iraqw: angamia (“camel”)
  • → Tooro: engamiya (“camel; horse”), engamira (“camel”)

See also
  • (Camelids) Camelidae: ngamia na jamaa; ngamia (“camel”) or jamali, lama (“llama”), - (“guanaco”), alpaka (“alpaca”), - (“vicuña”) (Category: sw:Camelids) [edit]

References
  1. Brook, Zev (2022) “Which Arabic Dialect Are Swahili Words From?”, in Studia Orientalia Electronica‎, volume 10, number 1, page 2 of 1-10: “Among these loans is ngamia ‘camel’, from Old Swahili ngamila; removing the class 9 prefix, we would expect an Arabic form *gamī̌l, which is not attested in extant Arabic dialects”
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