Fanagalo

British

/ ˈfænəɡələʊ /

noun

(in South Africa) a Zulu-based pidgin with English and Afrikaans components, esp associated with the mines

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Fanagalo

C20: from Fanagalo fana go lo , literally: to be like this; compare Zulu fand to be like, ka-lo of this

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Few spoke English, and the lingua franca was an amalgam of many tongues known as Fanagalo.

From Literature

His first language was Fanagalo.

From The Guardian

Hustling over to a crowd of waiting Africans, he waved his fly whisk, made from a wildebeest's tail, and shouted in Fanagalo, the language of the South African gold mines, "Kamuzu is glad to be here."

From Time Magazine Archive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023