List of English words of Niger-Congo origin
This is a list of English language words that come from the Niger-Congo languages.
It excludes placenames except where they have become common words.
Bantu origin
- banjo – probably Bantu mbanza
- basenji – breed of dog from the Congo
- boma – probably from Swahili
- bwana – from Swahili, meaning an important person or safari leader
- chimpanzee – loaned in the 18th century from a Bantu language, possibly Kivili ci-mpenzi.
- dengue – possibly from Swahili dinga
- goober – possibly from Bantu
- gilo - from Kimbundu njilu, via Portuguese jiló
- gumbo – from Bantu
- impala – from Zulu im-pala
- impi – from Zulu language meaning war, battle or a regiment
- indaba – from Xhosa or Zulu languages – 'stories' or 'news' typically conflated with 'meeting'
- isango – Zulu meaning gateway
- jumbo – from Swahili
- kalimba
- Kwanzaa – recent coinage as the name of a "specifically African-American holiday", abstracted from a Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning "first fruits ".
- lapa – from Sotho languages – enclosure or barbecue area
- macaque – from Bantu makaku through Portuguese and French
- mamba – from Zulu or Swahili mamba
- marimba – from Bantu
- okapi – from a language in the Congo
- safari – from Swahili travel, ultimately from Arabic
- sangoma – from Zulu – traditional healer
- tilapia – Possibly a latinization "thiape", the Tswana word for fish.
- tsetse – from a Bantu language
- ubuntu – Nguni term for "mankind; humanity", in South Africa since the 1980s also used capitalized, Ubuntu, as the name of a philosophy or ideology of "human kindness" or "humanism".
- vuvuzela – musical instrument, name of Zulu or Nguni origin
- zebra – of unknown origin, recorded since c. 1600, possibly from a Congolese language, or alternatively from Amharic.
- zombie – likely from West African
Non-Bantu West African origin
- azawakh - probably from Fula or Tuareg. A breed of dogs from West and North Africa
- banana – West African, possibly Wolof banana
- bongo – West African boungu
- buckra – "white man or person", from Efik and Ibibio mbakara
- chigger – possibly from Wolof and/or Yoruba jiga "insect"
- cola – from West African languages
- djembe – from West African languages
- jazz – from West African languages
- jive – possibly from Wolof jev
- juke, jukebox – possibly from Wolof and Bambara dzug through Gullah
- kwashiorkor – from Ga language, Coastal Ghana meaning "swollen stomach"
- Marímbula, plucked musical instrument of the Caribbean islands
- merengue (dance) possibly from Fulani mererek i meaning to shake or quiver
- mumbo jumbo – from Mandingo name Maamajombo, a masked dancer
- mojo – from Kongo “moyo” meaning “spirit”
- obeah – from West African
- okra – from Igbo ókùrù
- sambo – Fula sambo meaning "uncle"
- tango – probably from Ibibio tamgu
- tote – West African via Gullah
- vodou – from West African languages
- yam – West African