abeng

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English

WOTD – 21 May 2022

Etymology

Borrowed from Jamaican Creole abeng,^[1] from Akan abɛŋ (“animal horn; wind instrument”) (Twi).^[2]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈbɛŋ/, /æ-/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /əˈbɛŋ/, /æ-/
(Caribbean) IPA^(key): /æˈbɛŋ/, /ˈæbɛŋ/

Noun

abeng (plural abengs)

(Jamaica, music) An animal (usually bull) horn used by the Maroon people of Jamaica as a musical instrument; and also (historical) formerly by slaveholders to summon slaves to canefields and by the Maroon army to communicate cryptic messages over great distances.

Hypernyms

wind instrument

Coordinate terms

sneng

Translations

animal horn used by the Maroon people of Jamaica as a musical instrument, etc.

Akan: abɛŋ
French: abeng (fr)
Macedonian: абенг (abeng)

References

^ Richard Allsopp, editor (1996), “abeng (horn), n”, in Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 5, column 2; F[rederic] G[omes] Cassidy and R[obert] B[rock] Le Page, editors (2002), “ABENG, sb dial”, in Dictionary of Jamaican English, 2nd edition, Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, →ISBN, page 2, column 2.
^ “abeng, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “abeng, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

abeng on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abeng”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 3.

Anagrams

Bange, began, benga

Jamaican Creole

Etymology

From Akan abɛŋ (Twi).^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /æˈbɛŋ/, /ˈæbɛŋ/

Noun

abeng (plural abeng dem, quantified abeng)

(music) An abeng (horn of the Jamaican Maroons).
- 2003, Louise Bennett, Mervyn Morris, Aunty Roachy Seh, →ISBN, page 14:
  Yuh know omuch time dem sen soldiers an militia fi attack Nanny Town an Nanny pop dem? […] She always wear her abeng horn tie pon a string roun her wais […]
  Do you know how often soldiers and militias were sent to attack Nanny Town and Nanny routed them? […] She always wore her abeng on a lanyard around her waist […]

References

^ Richard Allsopp, editor (1996), Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 5.

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