Bantu

[ ban-too ]

noun

, plural Ban·tus, (especially collectively) Ban·tu.

1. a member of any of several peoples forming a linguistically and in some respects culturally interrelated family in central and southern Africa.
2. a grouping of more than 500 languages of central and southern Africa, as Kikuyu, Swahili, Tswana, and Zulu, all related within a subbranch of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Kordofanian family.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Bantu or the Bantu peoples.

Bantu

/ ˈbæntuː; bænˈtuː; ˈbɑːntʊ /

noun

1. a group of languages of Africa, including most of the principal languages spoken from the equator to the Cape of Good Hope, but excluding the Khoisan family: now generally regarded as part of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family
2. taboo.
   -tu-tus a Black speaker of a Bantu language

adjective

1. denoting, relating to, or belonging to this group of peoples or to any of their languages

Usage

Use of the term Bantu is only acceptable outside South Africa and when talking about this group of languages and their speakers. To refer to African people or peoples, the terms Black and African are acceptable within South Africa

Other Words From

• non-Bantu noun adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Bantu¹

C19: from Bantu Ba-ntu people

Example Sentences

Alluding to the increasingly bizarre hairstyles McCain has sported on The View over the past year, Desus said that she “has to” come out in Bantu knots for her final episode.

From The Daily Beast

Another well-known picture represents the way in which the Bushmen steal cattle from a Bantu tribe.

From Project Gutenberg

The Bantu, for example, swears by the head of his father or the cap of his mother, as well as by the colour of his ox.

From Project Gutenberg

It should be superfluous to say that the Bantu myth cannot possibly throw any tight on the real origin of totemism.

From Project Gutenberg

The Bantu, ancestor-worshippers of great piety, find themselves saddled with sacred tribal Siboko; why, they know not.

From Project Gutenberg

In the Bantu languages, the principle of concord works very much as in Chinook.

From Project Gutenberg