Words to Your Mother: Bwana

My name's not racist.
No, seriously.

Wow. Third post about Swahili in a month. (#1 - #2) You'd almost think that it was one of the languages that I've actually spent time studying. Maybe I should at some point, but I haven't yet. But enough about me.

Bwana is Swahili for "Mr." or "sir" (or, if you want to get Biblical, Lord). The female equivalent is Bibi. Despite occasional rumors otherwise, it is not a word for "master", and in native Swahili doesn't have any of the racist connotations sometimes attributed to it.

Incidentally, B'wana Beast is also the name of a hero from DC Comics who never exactly achieved Superman status.  Unfortunately for B'wana, changing his name didn't help much.  Of course, such things rarely do.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, bwana, b'wana, Swahili

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