abeng

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English[edit]

WOTD – 21 May 2022

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Jamaican Creole abeng,^[1] from Akan abɛŋ (“animal horn; wind instrument”) (Twi).^[2]

Pronunciation[edit]

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈbɛŋ/, /æ-/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /əˈbɛŋ/, /æ-/
(Caribbean) IPA^(key): /æˈbɛŋ/, /ˈæbɛŋ/

Noun[edit]

abeng (plural abengs)

(Jamaica, music) An animal (usually bull) horn used by the Maroon people of Jamaica as a musical instrument; and also (historical) formerly by slaveholders to summon slaves to canefields and by the Maroon army to communicate cryptic messages over great distances.

Hypernyms[edit]

wind instrument

Coordinate terms[edit]

sneng

Translations[edit]

animal horn used by the Maroon people of Jamaica as a musical instrument, etc.

Akan: abɛŋ
French: abeng (fr)
Macedonian: абенг (abeng)

References[edit]

^ Richard Allsopp, editor (1996), “abeng (horn), n”, in Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 5, column 2; F[rederic] G[omes] Cassidy and R[obert] B[rock] Le Page, editors (2002), “ABENG, sb dial”, in Dictionary of Jamaican English, 2nd edition, Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, →ISBN, page 2, column 2.
^ “abeng, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “abeng, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

abeng on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abeng”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 3.

Anagrams[edit]

Bange, began, benga

Jamaican Creole[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Akan abɛŋ (Twi).^[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

IPA^(key): /æˈbɛŋ/, /ˈæbɛŋ/

Noun[edit]

abeng (plural abeng dem, quantified abeng)

(music) An abeng (horn of the Jamaican Maroons).
- 2003, Louise Bennett, Mervyn Morris, Aunty Roachy Seh, →ISBN, page 14:
  Yuh know omuch time dem sen soldiers an militia fi attack Nanny Town an Nanny pop dem? […] She always wear her abeng horn tie pon a string roun her wais […]
  Do you know how often soldiers and militias were sent to attack Nanny Town and Nanny routed them? […] She always wore her abeng on a lanyard around her waist […]

References[edit]

^ Richard Allsopp, editor (1996), Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 5.

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