Where does “swahili” come from?
swahili (Portuguese) comes from Portuguese suaíli, from English Swahili, from Swahili Mswahili, from Swahili m-, from Arabic سَوَاحِل, from Arabic سَاحِل — coast; boundary, coast; border of the desert.
swahili (Portuguese): Alternative form of suaíli
Definitions
- Alternative form of suaíli
Ancestry of “swahili”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Portuguese | suaíli | Swahili; of the Swahili language |
| 2 | English | Swahili | An agglutinative language of the Bantu branch... |
| 3 | Swahili | Mswahili | A Swahili person |
| 4 | Swahili | m- | The prefix for noun class 1 denoting humans; The... |
| 5 | Arabic | سَوَاحِل | coastal dwellers |
| 6 | Arabic | سَاحِل | coast; boundary, coast; border of the desert |