matatu

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word matatu. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word matatu, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say matatu in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word matatu you have here. The definition of the word matatu will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofmatatu, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

Passengers boarding a matatu in Kenya.

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

Noun

matatu (plural matatus or matatu)

  1. (Kenya, Uganda) A minivan used as a share taxi, especially one operating without a licence.
    Synonyms: (Tanzania) daladala, (Sheng slang) mathree
    • 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

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ matatu, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2018; matatu, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Spanish

Noun

matatu m (plural matatus)

  1. matatu

Swahili

Etymology

From -tatu (three), based on the original flat fare of thirty cents in the 1960s.

Pronunciation

Noun

matatu (ma class, plural matatu)

  1. (Kenya) matatu
    Synonyms: (Tanzania) daladala, (Sheng) mathree, (Sheng) moshogi, (Sheng) shedhi

Adjective

matatu

  1. Ma class inflected form of -tatu.