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Word of the Day – Mganga

By June 7, 2019June 8th, 2019Word of the Day

Mganga (noun)

m-gan-ga

In East Africa: a doctor whose traditional functions include exorcism, prophecy, and the removal of spells.

Mid 19th century; earliest use found in Richard Burton (1821–1890), explorer and author. From Swahili mganga (plural waganga) doctor, physician from m- class prefix + ganga to bind up, mend, cure.

Example sentences

“As a believer in witchcraft she put great store on the mganga’s advice.”

Word of the Day – Medley

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Medley (noun) med-lee a mixture, especially of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge; jumble. First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English noun and adjective medle(e), medlei(e), maedlai(e) “battle, war, quarrel; mixture, balanced mixture,” from…

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One Comment

  • Ron says:

    Hi Kath,

    Thanks for the “Word of the Day”. I love sharing it with friends. Looks like the spellchecker got you in the example sentence. “Manga’s”, that’s a Japanese comic book.

    Thanks again,

    Ron

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