English
sengi
Sengi comes from Swahili sengi.
- Swahilimodernsengi
- Englishearliest quotation 2007same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Swahilimodernsengi
- Englishearliest quotation 2007same form
Earliest quotation: 2007, Marian Armstrong, Wildlife and Plants: “The order formerly known as Insectivora included solenodons; shrews;…”
The story
Borrowed from Swahili sengi, probably from another Bantu language (compare Giryama sanje).
Every English word from Swahili sengi
Another origin of sengi
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pénkʷe‘five’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kʷenkʷe‘five’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquīnque‘five’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CEcīnque
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400cinc‘five’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600cinq‘five’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘five’
- Kongomodernsengi
- Englishtodaysame form
Borrowed from Kongo sengi, senki, from French cinq (‘five’) (in the sense of five sous).
Today it means
noun Any of several small, insectivorous long-nosed mammals, of the family Macroscelididae within the Macroscelidea order, native to Africa.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Swahili sengi / sengi