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Word
Where does Safari (the word) come from?
Safari is Swahili for 'journey', used for any trip, even a bus ride, and comes from Arabic safar. Explorer Richard Burton brought it into English in the late 1850s.
More Words
Word
Tomato (the word)
📍 Central Mexico
Spanish tomate comes from tomatl in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Italy only received its first tomatoes around 1548 and called them pomi d'oro, 'golden apples'.
Word
Aardvark (the word)
📍 Cape region, South Africa
It looks Dutch, but aardvark ('earth pig', for its burrowing) was coined in South Africa in Afrikaans, the language that grew from the Dutch of Cape settlers. English borrowed it in 1833, and aardvarks live only in Africa.
Word
Tarantula (the word)
📍 Taranto, Italy
The name comes from Taranto in southern Italy, home of a wolf spider whose bite was popularly blamed for 'tarantism', a frenzy said to be cured by dancing. English later gave the name to big hairy American spiders.
More from Africa
Food
Ackee
📍 West Africa (Senegal to Cameroon)
Ackee is Jamaica's national fruit, but the tree is native to West Africa and was carried to the Caribbean by the late 1700s. Its scientific name, Blighia sapida, honours Captain William Bligh.
Invention
Dolos (breakwater block)
📍 East London, South Africa
These giant concrete 'jacks' that lock together to tame waves were designed in 1963 for the harbour of East London, South Africa. Their Afrikaans name refers to knucklebones, and they now guard coasts around the world.
Nature
Bird-of-paradise flower (Strelitzia)
📍 Eastern Cape & KwaZulu-Natal coast, South Africa
Bird-of-paradise flowers grow wild along South Africa's eastern coast, where sunbirds perching on the blue petals get pollen dusted onto their feet. Joseph Banks named the plant after Queen Charlotte, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.