mbeũ

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records mbēu as an equivalent of English seeds in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also “Ulu dialect” (spoken then from Machakos to coastal area) of Kamba mbēū and Swahili mbegu as its equivalents.[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ᵐbɛ̀.ó/
As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 4 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩng'ang'i, ngũkũ, kĩeha, and so on.

Noun

mbeũ class 9/10 (plural mbeũ)

  1. seed(s)
    Synonym: mbegũ

Derived terms

(Proverbs)

  • kanua karĩa karĩire mbeũ noko koragia 'ngahanda kĩ?'

References
  1. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 52–3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • “mbeũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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