inkwenkwe, noun

/iŋˈkweːŋkwe/
Plurals:
usually amakwenkwe, but also amacanquas, amakhenkwe, amakhwenkwe, makhwenkwe, and unchanged.
Origin:
IsiXhosaShow more IsiXhosa (plural amakwenkwe).
kwedini. Also figurative.
Note:
Occasionally found in diminutive form inkwenkwana [IsiXhosa diminutive suffix -ana].
1875 J.J. Bisset Sport & War 53Up to the age of sixteen the boys remain boys, or, as they are called, amacanquas.
1937 B.J.F. Laubscher Sex, Custom & Psychopathology 9Many stories are told by boys (amakwenkwe) of the wonderful games they have had.
1937 B.J.F. Laubscher Sex, Custom & Psychopathology 179The small boys or amakwenkwana receive the large bowel, and the small girls or intwanazana are given strips from the neck and trotters.
1954 in A.M. Duggan-Cronin Bantu Tribes III. Pl.174Inkwenkwe (uncircumcised boy).
1959 L. Longmore Dispossessed 159Among the Xhosa, when a man does not behave himself, he is called inkwenkwe, an uncircumcised boy — one who has not been given the training to prepare him to be a worthy member of the community.
1970 A. Fulton I Swear to Apollo 46The in-Kwenkwe will need a mug of coffee and some bread. I suppose the little fellow walked all the way?
1987 S.D. Tirivanhu in New Coin Poetry June 25I work singing the ancient songs of my long forgotten youth of Amakhenkwe passing the day warming from the morning’s dew.
kwedini. Also figurative.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

18751987

Browse Related Words

By Category

Family and Social Relationships

By Origin

IsiXhosa

By Usage

figurative or allusive
inkundla, nounn.insangu, intsangu, nounn.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English