Kung, noun

/kʊŋ/
Forms:
Kgung, !KhuShow more Also Kgung, !Khu, !Khung, !Kun, !Kung, Qung.
Plurals:
unchanged.
Origin:
KhoikhoiShow more Khoikhoi !Kung persons, people.
1. plural. Collectively, the members of a San people living in the Kalahari desert and in Namibia. Also attributive, now usually in the noun phrase Kung Bushmen. See also San sense 1.
Note:
As is the case with many names of peoples and groups in South African English, ‘Kung’ has been found only in plural uses; however, it may be that it has also been used in unrecorded singular forms.
1928 E.H.L. Schwarz Kalahari & its Native Races 165The Qung are a small — not pigmy — race, with slender limbs. The body colour is a Venetian red. Their ears are without lobes, but elongated, the lower margin running into the cheek. Their hair, though short and kinky, is longer than that of the San, so that the head is covered with a continuous mat.
1930 I. Schapera KhoiSan Peoples 33Immediately north of them, and speaking a closely-related language, live the !Khu or !Kun, commonly called Kung, one of the largest and most independent of the Bushman tribes. Their tribal name means simply ‘persons, people’, but when used without an adjective signifies ‘Bushmen’ to them.
1960 Africa 4 Oct. 343It always amuses me to speak of residence when I visualize the nomadic !Kung..building their nest-like grass shelters (scherms) for a stay of a few weeks.
1966 J.P. van S. Bruwer S.W. Afr.: Disputed Land 8A considerable stretch of government land gives ample scope for the nomadic habits of a few thousand !Khung Bushmen.
1969 J.M. White Land God Made in Anger 225In the north, between Namutoni and Lake Ngami, taking in the many salt-pans of the north-east corner of South West Africa, live the Kung Bushmen.
1983 Flying Springbok Apr. 107He and his wife spent 18 months with the !Kung people in the north-west Kalahari.
1985 [see Bush noun2].
2. The language spoken by the Kung people. Also attributive.
1928 E.H.L. Schwarz Kalahari & its Native Races 144In Qung, there is no ‘p,’ nor labial click;..in Hottentot, the ‘p’ has become fully developed, but the labial click has vanished.
1971 S. Afr. Panorama Dec. 3Work is progressing on two new translations, namely in Kwangali and the Kung Bushman tongue.
plural. Collectively, the members of a San people living in the Kalahari desert and in Namibia. Also attributive, now usually in the noun phrase Kung Bushmen.
The language spoken by the Kung people. Also attributive.
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kumbomvu, interjectionint.kurper, nounn.
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