tokoloshe

British

/ -ˈlɒʃɪ, ˌtɒkɒˈlɒʃ /

noun

Also called: tikoloshe. (in Bantu folklore) a malevolent mythical manlike animal of short stature

"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 tokoloshe

from Xhosa uthikoloshe

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.

She keeps an ugly statue at her gate: a tokoloshe, or evil spirit in the local traditional belief, installed by a witch doctor to ward off superstitious rhino poachers.

From Los Angeles Times

Native words acceptable in one town are obscenities 50 miles away, and that old advertising catchword "magic" has doubtful value; to Africans the word is linked with a mythical devil named Tokoloshe, who gets young girls pregnant.

From Time Magazine Archive

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