Bantu
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Bantu /banˈtuː, ˈbantuː/
▶noun (pl. same or Bantus)
- 1 a member of an extensive group of indigenous peoples of central and southern Africa.
- 2 the group of Niger–Congo languages spoken by the Bantu, including Swahili, Xhosa, and Zulu.
– origin pl. (in certain Bantu languages) of -ntu ‘person’.
usage: Bantu is a strongly offensive word in South African English, especially when used of individual people, but is still used outside South Africa to refer to the group of languages and their speakers collectively.
'Bantu' also found in these Oxford entries:
Bemba
- Congolese
- Fang
- Herero
- Hutu
- Kamba
- Kikongo
- Kikuyu
- Kirundi
- Kiswahili
- Kongo
- kwacha
- lilangeni
- Lingala
- Luganda
- macaque
- Makonde
- marimba
- Ndebele
- Nguni
- Niger–Congo
- Nyanja
- Ovambo
- piri-piri
- Shangaan
- Shona
- Sintu
- Sotho
- Swahili
- tanga
- Tsonga
- Venda
- Xhosa
- Zulu
