matatu
English
WOTD – 1 June 2021
Etymology
Borrowed from Swahili matatu, a clipping of mapeni matatu (“thirty cents”, literally “three ten-cent coins”) (the flat fare paid for such transportation in the 1960s). The word matatu is from ma- (prefix forming plurals) + -tatu (“three”) (from Proto-Bantu *-tátʊ̀ (“three”)).[1]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /məˈtætuː/
Audio (Southern England) (file) Audio (Kenya) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /məˈtɑˌtu/
- Hyphenation: ma‧ta‧tu
Noun
matatu (plural matatus or matatu)
- (Kenya) A minivan used as a share taxi, especially one operating without a licence.
- Synonyms: (Tanzania) daladala, (Sheng slang) mathree
- 1982, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements Habitat News:
- A matatu is also more profitable when driven by its owner than by an employed driver, or if the employee-driver pays in all the earnings and the owner meets the operating costs, rather than when the owner demands a fixed sum of money daily, with the operator keeping the surplus.
- 2010, Philo Ikonya, Leading the Night, page 102:
- For now, matatus made lanes along both sides of tarmac main roads and went over, around or through potholes depending on their speed.
- 2017, Kenda Mutongi, Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi, page 98:
- Memories of their sense of trepidation, or even the anger, aboard a matatu could still be visceral.
Hypernyms
- share taxi
Derived terms
- matatu culture
Translations
See also
- makanga
- manamba
References
- “matatu, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2018; “matatu, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
- matatu on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- matatus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
Spanish
Noun
matatu m (plural matatus)
- matatu
Swahili
Etymology
From -tatu (“three”), based on the original flat fare of thirty cents in the 1960s.
Pronunciation
Audio (Kenya) (file)
Noun
matatu (ma class, plural matatu)
- (Kenya) matatu
- Synonyms: (Tanzania) daladala, (Sheng) mathree, (Sheng) moshogi, (Sheng) shedhi
Adjective
matatu
- Ma class inflected form of -tatu.