Motswana
/mɒtˈswɑːnə/noun
A person belonging to the Tswana ethnic group, especially a citizen of Botswana.
Did you know?In Tswana, Motswana is singular while Batswana is plural, reflecting a widespread Bantu noun-class system also visible in words such as umuntu and abantu.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Bantu
Proto-Bantu
*-ntu
“Person or human being; a reconstructed ancestral root found across many Bantu languages.”
Early Sotho-Tswana
Sotho-Tswana
*mo-tho
“Person or human being, formed with the singular human noun-class prefix mo-.”
Precolonial period
Tswana
motho
“A person or human being in Tswana.”
Precolonial period
Tswana
Motswana
“A member of the Tswana people; the singular counterpart of Batswana.”
19th–20th Century
English
Motswana
“An English loanword for an individual Tswana person, increasingly used in writing about Botswana and southern Africa.”
Modern English
English
Motswana
“A member of the Tswana people, particularly a citizen or inhabitant of Botswana.”