Mwezi
/mwe.zi/noun
A month or the moon in several Bantu languages, including Swahili.
Did you know?In many Bantu languages, the same word for “moon” also names the month, because lunar cycles were historically the calendar people actually lived by.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Bantu
PB
*jìʊ̀dì
“moon; month”
Proto-Bantu
PB
*gìdì
“moon; month (another reconstructed form in some analyses)”
Swahili
Swahili
mwezi
“moon; month”
Modern English
English
moon
“the natural satellite of Earth”
Modern English
English
month
“a unit of time based historically on the lunar cycle”
Explore more surprising origins