abba, verb transitive

/ˈæbə//ˈaba/
Origin:
Afrikaans, KhoikhoiShow more Afrikaans, adaptation of Khoikhoi awa.
To carry (a child) on one’s back. Also attributive.
Note:
Found most often in speech.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 21Abba,..To carry on the back as a mother does her child.
[1945 L.G. Green Where Men Still Dream 135Each section of the plant, as it grows, carries another section on its back as it were, and the Bushmen called it in their language the ‘Abba’ plant because it reminded them of the manner of their women in carrying babies in skin sacks on their backs.]
1971 P.J. Silva Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)You look tired — I wish I could abba you all the way home.
1974 S. Afr. Panorama Apr. 39The name given to this new industrial growth point is Babelegi, a word which in Setswana is derived from ‘abba’: to carry a baby on one’s back...At Babelegi industrialists and workers really ‘abba’ each other.
[1978 Argus 19 Apr.The word abba..has an interesting rebirth in the recent use of the term ‘abbahart’ in Afrikaans for the piggy-back heart operation.]
1986 D. Case Love, David 75Had David not been carrying Stumpy, he would surely have abba-ed me at least part of the way.
1991 B. Dean Informant, Kenton-on-Sea, Eastern CapeAnother girl, abbaing her baby on her back, went and sat with the boys.
To carry (a child) on one’s back. Also attributive.
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19131991
abalumbi, plural nounpl. n.abdas, nounn.
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