munt

en-verb

munt (third-person singular simple present munts, present participle munting, simple past and past participle munted)

munts (present singular third-person)
munting (participle present)
munted (participle past)
munted (past)

(Australia, slang) To vomit (usually while drunk).


caucus

caucuses (plural)
caucusses (plural)
in UK (Pakistan archaic)

Unknown. Often claimed to be from an Algonquian language; transcribed words such as cawaassough and caucauasu meaning "counselor, elder, adviser" appear in early texts.
A popular folk etymology attested in Great Leaders and National Issues of 1896 stated: "In the early part of the eighteenth century a number of caulkers connected with the shipping business in the North End of Boston held a meeting for consultation. That meeting was the germ of the political caucuses which have formed so prominent a feature of our government ever since its organization."
American Heritage Dictionary states the term is taken from the Caucus Club of Boston in the 1760s, possibly from Medieval Latin caucus (“drinking vessel”).

bor

He conferred with Mr. Warren of Plymouth upon the necessity of giving into spirited measures, and then said, "Do you keep the committee in play, and I will go and make a caucus against the evening; and do you meet me."

1788, William Gordon, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America

A usually preliminary meeting of party members to nominate candidates for public office or delegates to be sent a nominating convention, or to confer regarding policy.


biltong

en-noun

biltong (countable and uncountable, plural biltongs)

Borrowed from Afrikaans biltong, from bil (“buttock, hindquarter”) + tong (“tongue”).

"P W who …?" Mr William Clark is reputed to have said when he was being quizzed for the job of American Assistant Secretary of State. Well, whatever political reminders he might now have, he will never forget our prime minister [P. W. Botha] after being given so memorable a dish as biltong souffle for breakfast yesterday, backed up by straight biltong and maroela jelly.

1981, “The Star: Gastro-diplomacy”, in South African Digest: Fortnightly Digest of South African Affairs, Pretoria: Department of Information, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20, column 3

(South Africa, Zimbabwe) A South African food categorized by strips of lean meat cured by salting and drying, similar to American jerky.


MDC

Movement for Democratic Change
Movement for Democratic Change#English

(Zimbabwe) Initialism of Movement for Democratic Change.


braai

Borrowed from Afrikaans braai (“to grill”), from Dutch braden (“roast”).

bor+

Come over to our place for a braai.

(chiefly South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe) A social meeting, including the braaing of meat; a cookout.


Cde

(South Africa, Zimbabwe) Abbreviation of comrade. A title used before a person's name, e.g. Cde Robert Mugabe.


fundi

From a Nguni language; compare Zulu umfundisi (“teacher”).

Alas I our small office staff boasted no bird fundi and the bird remained unindentified.

1972, The Rhodesia Science News, volume 6, page 358

(South Africa, Zimbabwe) A master of a particular skill; an expert.


dagga

en-noun

dagga (countable and uncountable, plural daggas)

South Africa

Borrowed from Afrikaans dagga, from Khoekhoe daxab.

(South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia) Indian hemp, Cannabis sativa subsp. indica, or a similar plant of the species Leonotis leonurus.


zot

Regretfully there is nothing that can be done about things .. just a time bomb ticking, ticking, ticking .. until one day soon, the zots will decide to take a property here, and a property there (they have after all started with vacant land and been successful), so why not progress to property?

2000 April 9, Squirrel, “SA Silence on Mugabe's actions”, in soc.culture.south-africa (Usenet)

(SA) ¶ The government has TACITLY condoned the actions of the zots by allowing them to continue their illegal occupation.
(Zimbabwe) ¶ The government condoned the illegal activities and progressed to the point where they were actively supporting it.

2000 October 29, Nude Raider, “Here are the facts...”, in soc.culture.south-africa (Usenet)

The zots will destroy the barns, the homesteads, the tractors, everything - reducing them to their component parts without the aid of explosives.

2002 July 5, Alistair, “Re: Tobacco barn and other assets- disassembly instructions”, in soc.culture.zimbabwe (Usenet)

(South Africa, Zimbabwe, ethnic slur, offensive, derogatory) A black person.


toyi-toyi

Seemingly from Northern Ndebele [Term?], but the ultimate origin is unclear.

(South Africa, Zimbabwe) A dance from southern Africa, used especially during political protests.


toyi-toyi

en-verb

toyi-toyi (third-person singular simple present toyi-toyis, present participle toyi-toying, simple past and past participle toyi-toyied)

toyi-toyis (present singular third-person)
toyi-toying (participle present)
toyi-toyied (participle past)
toyi-toyied (past)

[H]e stood with his back against the chanting, toyi-toying boys, arms outstretched as a shield before them: the sergeant strangely distracted by the old authority enacted the same stance, but to hold his men back.

2012, Nadine Gordimer, No Time Like the Present, Bloomsbury, published 2013, page 30

They are kids who get caught up in the excitement, hysteria of the period. You know, toyi-toying and hurling stones, and they are arrested and sentenced to a minimum five years on Robben Island.

2017, Matthew Hahn, The Robben Island Shakespeare

(South Africa, Zimbabwe) To perform this dance.


zhing-zhong

en-adj

zhing-zhong (comparative more zhing-zhong, superlative most zhing-zhong)

more zhing-zhong (comparative)
most zhing-zhong (superlative)

Dates back to the onset of Chinese trade with Zimbabweans at the turn of the 21st century. It stems from the way the Chinese language sounds to a Zimbabwean.

Zimbabweans complain, sometimes bitterly, that their new Chinese buses break down with alarming regularity and that the Chinese goods that flood stores and roadside stalls are so shoddy as to be worthless. Indeed, they have coined a term for the phenomenon: zhing-zhong.
"To call something zhing-zhong means that it is substandard," said Eldred Masunugure, the chairman of the political science department at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare. "The resentment of the Chinese is not only widespread; it's deeply rooted. It's affecting even other Chinese-looking people, like the Japanese."
Professor Masunugure and others say that Harare's few Japanese residents complain of being taunted and called zhing-zhong.

2005 July 24, Michael Wines, “From Shoes to Aircraft to Investment, Zimbabwe Pursues a Made-in-China Future”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-02-09, Africa

On the other side of Mbare, among the zhing-zhong products from China, the shiny clothes spelling out cheerful poverty, the glittery tank-tops and body-stockings imported in striped carrier bags from Dubai, among the Gucchii bags and Prader shoes, […]

2007, Petina Gappah, “An Elegy for Easterly”, in Jungfrau and Other Short Stories (The Caine Prize for African Writing, 7th Annual Collection), Oxford: New Internationalist Publications Ltd, page 109

At a nearby table, a handsome man in shirtsleeves pushed to the elbow raised a hand and began to snap his fingers at the waitress. His watch was heavy on his wrist. It could have been a Rolex or Breitling. It could have been a zhing-zhong knock-off.

2015, C. B. George, The Death of Rex Nhongo, London: Quercus Publishing Ltd, page 23

(slang, derogatory, Zimbabwe) Of objects, cheap, Asian and of inferior quality.

(slang, derogatory, Zimbabwe) Of a person, low-quality, unfit for their occupation or station in life.


zhing-zhong

(slang, derogatory, Zimbabwe) Cheap Asian products.


sadza

Locals would speak sorrowfully about the state of affairs, often while nursing their sole plate of sadza (maize porridge) for the day.

2007 February 16, “Zimbabwe’s Slide (1 Letter)”, in New York Times

(Zimbabwe) Synonym of nshima (“maize porridge”)


gumaguma

I found the Gumagumas who said they were here to help people to cross.

2006 December 21, Nicole Johnston, quoting "Zimbabwean boy", “The grass isn't greener on the other side”, in Mail & Guardian

Perhaps the greatest risk is the gumagumas — the swindlers, thieves and rapists who stalk the vulnerable as they wander in the bush.

2009 January 24, Barry Bearak, “Desperate Children Flee Zimbabwe, for Lives Just as Bleak”, in New York Times

(Zimbabwe) An outlaw who preys upon refugees crossing the South African border.


Joburg

(chiefly South Africa, Zimbabwe, colloquial) Johannesburg.


go moggy

en-verb

go moggy (third-person singular simple present goes moggy, present participle going moggy, simple past went moggy, past participle gone moggy)

goes moggy (present singular third-person)
going moggy (participle present)
went moggy (past)
gone moggy (participle past)

Derived from the Unimog, a brand of rugged four-wheel drive trucks popular in rural areas of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

(chiefly South Africa, Zimbabwe, idiomatic, colloquial) To go without restraint; to go wild; to be adventurous.

B: "That's a bad place, I tell you, I nearly went moggy in that jungle, hey."
A: "That's only because you got that bump on the head, when that bus ran over ..."

2002, Dan Wylie, Dead leaves: Two years in the Rhodesian War, page 79

(chiefly South Africa, Zimbabwe, idiomatic, colloquial) To go crazy; to be somewhat delirious.

(chiefly South Africa, Zimbabwe, idiomatic, colloquial) (usually in the past tense, as in "gone moggy") To become broken, disorganized or dysfunctional.


Zim

(colloquial, Zimbabwe, South Africa) Zimbabwe.


pungwe

So-called pungwe sessions, the Shona word for all-night vigils, have become common in areas where people once loyal to President Mugabe dared vote against him in the first round of voting on March 29.

2008 June 22, Barry Bearak, “Assassins in Zimbabwe Aim at the Grass Roots”, in New York Times

(Zimbabwe) An all-night political vigil or rally.


goffel

(Zimbabwe, slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of mixed race, usually white and black.


Zimbo

(slang) A Zimbabwean, usually a white person who grew up after 1980.


mombie

"Mr. Mhene," Chris said, rather cautiously. "On my way here I met a herd of cows wandering down the road. Tourists will come to the Mavuradonha to see elephants and sables, not mombies."

2008, Dick Pitman, A Wild Life: Adventures of an Accidental Conservationist, page 124

But there are traces, hoof marks of mombies are encrusted in the dried mud.

2008, Lesley Stern, The Smoking Book, page 8

'Start looking for mombies.'
The cattle that have stayed up this high are wild.

2013, Alexandra Fuller, Don't, Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, page 113

The baccy crop's looking good, ja, and one of the mombies calved this morning.

2014, Katherine Rundell, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms


chimurenga

(Zimbabwe, music) A genre of Zimbabwean popular music, originally focusing on revolutionary themes.


makoronyera

From Shona makoronyera, plural of goronyera (“unscrupulous person”).

(Zimbabwe) middlemen who buy produce from farmers and mark up the price, generally drastically, for resale


mukwa

Inside, your boss settles behind a mukwa desk and gestures for you to take a seat on a chair done up in leather upholstery that softens a frame of the same softly glowing wood.

2018, Tsitsi Dangarembga, This Mournable Body, Faber & Faber (2020), pages 240–241


give way sign

(British, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Nigeria, Nepal, Jamaica, Barbados, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Pakistan, India, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Fiji, Ghana, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Kenya, Malta, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zimbabwe) a road sign which instructs road users to give right of way to other traffic

Bermuda; Ghana; Isle of Man; Solomon Islands; Tanzania; Bermuda; Ghana; Isle of Man; Solomon Islands; Tanzania


forest star

Attested at least in a work pertaining to Zimbabwean flora published in 1990.

(Zambia, Zimbabwe) Mussaenda arcuata, a shrub species of the family Rubiaceae with a star-shaped 5-lobed yellow corolla, whose centre is also star-shaped and hairy, orange to brown in colour; native range is Tropical Africa and Western Indian Ocean.


ZiG

For a start, it's making it compulsory for companies to settle at least half of their quarterly taxes in ZiG, according to the central bank report.

2024 April 9, Huileng Tan, “Zimbabwe just introduced a new gold-backed currency in an attempt to fight inflation and wean off the US dollar”, in Business Insider, archived from the original on 2024-04-12

After the ZiG was introduced electronically, bank accounts of some businesses were frozen, accused by the government of rejecting the new currency.

2024 April 30, Farai Mutsaka, “Zimbabwe’s ZiG is the world’s newest currency and its latest attempt to resolve a money crisis”, in The Associated Press, Harare

Ms Dhliwayo would use Zigs if there were any to be had - but it mostly exists digitally, and in a place where people can rarely charge their phones because of blackouts, it is cash that counts.

2024 May 5, Farai Sevenzo, “Is Zimbabwe zigzagging into further currency chaos?”, in BBC News, Harare

Abbreviation of Zimbabwe Gold, the official national currency of Zimbabwe since April 2024, which began as a gold-backed digital token in October 2023.