BANTU • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Bantu

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proper noun

Bantu n.

A member of one of the great family of Negroid tribes occupying equatorial and southern Africa. These tribes include, as important divisions, the Kafirs, Damaras, Bechuanas, and many tribes whose names begin with Aba-, Ama-, Ba-, Ma-, Wa-, variants of the Bantu plural personal prefix Aba-, as in Ba-ntu, or Aba-ntu, itself a combination of this prefix with the syllable -ntu, a person; or as in Watusi.

The family of languages spoken by the Bantu people (definition 1).

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Etymology of 'Bantu'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bantu" Quotes from Famous Books

... pulled up outside the wall surrounding the central group of marble huts—for so I must call them, for want of a better name. Our approach had been observed by a crowd of natives, whose race I have never been able to determine accurately; they belonged to the Basutu and peaceful section of the Bantu peoples rather than to the Zulu and warlike. Several of these ran up to take the horses, gazing on us with astonishment, not unmixed with awe. We dismounted—speaking for myself, not without difficulty—indeed, had it not been for Stella's ...

— Allan's Wife • H. Rider Haggard

... and, having set down the baskets, lifted their hands above their heads, as a person about to dive might do, and bowed till the points of their fingers touched the floor. Next they spoke, not in Arabic as I had expected that they would, but in Bantu, which of ...

— The Ivory Child • H. Rider Haggard

Words linked to "Bantu" : Luyia, Herero, Kichaga, Chichewa, Chagga, Swahili, Chaga, Luba, Nguni, Tswana, Chiluba, Tutsi, Hutu, Niger-Congo, Kamba, Tonga, Kinyarwanda, Bantu-speaking, Nyamwezi, Sotho, Chishona, Bantoid language, Mwera