Definition of Bantu

1. Noun. A member of any of a large number of linguistically related peoples of Central and South Africa.

Generic synonyms: African
Specialized synonyms: Herero, Hutu, Chiluba, Luba, Sotho, Batswana, Bechuana, Tswana, Tutsi, Watusi, Watutsi, Shona

2. Adjective. Of or relating to the African people who speak one of the Bantoid languages or to their culture. "The Bantu population of Sierra Leone"

3. Noun. A family of languages widely spoken in the southern half of the African continent.

Definition of Bantu

1. 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.

Definition of Bantu

1. Proper noun. the largest African language family of the Niger-Congo group, spoken in much of Sub-Saharan Africa. ¹

2. Proper noun. General term for African ethnic groups speaking a Bantu language and their members. ¹

3. Proper noun. (South African: historical, now unacceptable/derogatory) A black South African. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Bantu

1. a group of African languages [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Bantu

Bannian
Bannians
Bannister's disease
Bannock
Bannockburn
Bannwarth's syndrome
Banquine
Banstead
Bantam
Bantam work
Banti's disease
Banti's syndrome
Bantingism
Bantoid
Bantoid language
Bantu
Bantu-speaking
Banyumasan
Baoding
Baotou
Baoulé
Baphia
Baphia nitida
Baphomet
Bapticostal
Baptisia
Baptisia australis
Baptisia lactea
Baptisia tinctoria
Baptist

Literary usage of Bantu

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Bulletin of the New York Public Library by New York public library (1909)
"Johnston (Sir HH) The basis for a comparative grammar of the bantu languages. ... Kolbe (FW) On the bearing of the study of the bantu languages of South ..."

2. Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science (1888)
"The Semi-bantu proceeded due west towards the Niger, and the bantu turned to ... The Semi-bantu greatly discarded and wore away the grammatical structure ..."

3. The Uganda Protectorate: An Attempt to Give Some Description of the Physical by Harry Hamilton Johnston (1902)
"It is perhaps advisable at this stage to again repeat that by "bantu" ... He would have hesitated to give a racial distinction to the term "bantu" (the ..."

4. Proceedings by Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain), Norton Shaw, Francis Galton, William Spottiswoode, Clements Robert Markham, Henry Walter Bates, John Scott Keltie (1888)
"( ) The bantu Borderland in Western Africa. By HH JOHNSTON, HM Vice-Consul, Cameroons. Map, p. 676. THE region stretching from Old Calabar and the Cross ..."

5. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and (1910)
"The theory thus set forth of the origin and progress of the bantu and the approximate date at which their great southern exodus commenced, is to some extent ..."

6. South Africa: (The Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, South African by George McCall Theal (1894)
"Every bantu clan was usually at feud with its nearest neighbours, whoever these might be. But life without excitement is insipid to the savage fab/e Bay ..."

7. The Beginning of South African History by George McCall Theal (1902)
"... 111 Vibo, bantu chief: mention of, 299 Victoria, Dutch vessel: voyages to Inhambane of, 417 Victoria Palls on the Zambesi: are discovered by the ..."

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