Sudani
/suːˈdɑːni/noun
A person from Sudan or, in some contexts, the Sudanese pound.
Did you know?Arabic al-Sūdān originally referred broadly to sub-Saharan Africa, not only the modern Republic of Sudan; the modern country inherited the geographic name.
Etymological Timeline
Early Islamic period
Arabic
sūdān
“Plural of aswad, “black”; used in the expression Bilād al-Sūdān, “lands of the Black peoples.””
Medieval Arabic
Arabic
Bilād al-Sūdān
“A broad geographic term for sub-Saharan African regions south of the Sahara.”
17th–19th Century
European languages
Soudan / Sudan
“European forms adopted from Arabic geographic usage.”
19th Century
English
Sudan
“The African region and, increasingly, the territory later governed as Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.”
20th Century
Arabic
sūdānī
“Sudanese; relating to Sudan, formed with the Arabic nisba suffix -ī.”
Modern English
English
Sudani
“A person from Sudan or the Sudanese monetary unit, the pound.”
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