matatu
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Swahili matatu, a clipping of mapeni matatu (“thirty cents”, literally “three ten-cent coins”) (the flat fare paid for such transportation in the 1960s). The word matatu is from ma- (prefix forming plurals) + -tatu (“three”) (from Proto-Bantu *-tátʊ̀ (“three”)).[1]
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /məˈtætuː/
Audio (Southern England) (file) Audio (Kenya) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /məˈtɑˌtu/
- Hyphenation: ma‧ta‧tu
Noun edit
matatu (plural matatus or matatu)
- (Kenya, Uganda) A minivan used as a share taxi, especially one operating without a licence.
- 1982, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements Habitat News:
- A matatu is also more profitable when driven by its owner than by an employed driver, or if the employee-driver pays in all the earnings and the owner meets the operating costs, rather than when the owner demands a fixed sum of money daily, with the operator keeping the surplus.
- 2010, Philo Ikonya, Leading the Night, page 102:
- For now, matatus made lanes along both sides of tarmac main roads and went over, around or through potholes depending on their speed.
- 2017, Kenda Mutongi, Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi, page 98:
- Memories of their sense of trepidation, or even the anger, aboard a matatu could still be visceral.
- 2024 January 13, David Pilling, “Revenge of the moderators”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 15:
- The roads were jammed with matatu minibuses sporting cartoonish liveries, and trucks billowing black smoke into the dazzling African light.
Hypernyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
See also edit
References edit
- ^ “matatu, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2018; “matatu, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading edit
- matatu on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Category:matatus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
Spanish edit
Noun edit
matatu m (plural matatus)
Swahili edit
Etymology edit
From -tatu (“three”), based on the original flat fare of thirty cents in the 1960s.
Pronunciation edit
Audio (Kenya) (file)
Noun edit
matatu (ma class, plural matatu)
Adjective edit
matatu