panga, noun2

/ˈpæŋɡə//ˈpaŋɡə/
Origin:
Swahili, South African English, Kenyan EnglishShow more Swahili; the word entered South African English either from Kenyan English, or through the influence of East-African contract mine-workers.
1. A heavy cane knife with a long, broad blade, used as an implement or a weapon. Also attributive.
[1936 E. Hemingway Green Hills of Afr. 170Chopping our way through with the long brush knives that are called pangas.]
1953 Drum June 6Men..who had been home brought back gruesome stories of murder by the panga and forced oath-taking.
1961 T. Matshikiza Choc. for my Wife 111The accused..drove between fifty to sixty holes through her prostrate body with a panga.
1961 T. Matshikiza Choc. for my Wife 119Panga practice on Saturdays instead of football!
1969 M. Benson At Still Point 142He said we must have guns, pangas, axes, weapons which would come from Russia and Ghana?
1973 A. Fugard Notebks (1983) 205Five African men spent the night sleeping on the sand in front of a neighbour’s house, all with pangas, ready in case the fire swept down again.
1980 Weekend Post 13 Sept. 1The Divisional Inspector of Police in Port Natal..said his men had taken possession of hundreds of knobkerries, battle-axes, sticks, pangas, sharpened pieces of iron, [etc.].
1983 Pace Oct. 45At that time I used to carry some of the biggest pangas ever seen in Mdantsane. All the tsotsis feared me.
1986 J. Conyngham Arrowing of Cane 10The roar of tractors and the rhythmical slash-fall of pangas and cane.
1987 S.D. Tirivanhu in New Coin Poetry June 25I the sugarcane cutter don’t feel the least offended,..For in the morrow we go, to the fields ahead the only friend being my Panga.
1992 D. Forrest in Weekly Mail 16 Apr. 3Phola Park squatters all say the soldiers kicked down shack doors..assaulting them with pipes, rifle butts and pangas.
2. combination
pangaman, one armed with a panga;
(objective) panga-wielding participial adjective.
1968 Post 17 Nov. 9Natal’s panga man has moved south and struck again.
1977 Sunday Times 1 May 1They discovered 20 men, one of whom Mr L— identified as the pangaman.
1982 Sunday Times 2 May 11A pangaman viciously slashed two youngsters early yesterday.
1985 Grocott’s Mail 8 Nov. 1Panga man holds up ambulance. A drunk panga-wielding man stopped an ambulance in the black townships on Wednesday, threatened to burn the vehicle...A group of people arrived on the scene and told the pangaman that the ambulance..should be allowed to pass.
A heavy cane knife with a long, broad blade, used as an implement or a weapon. Also attributive.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19361992

Browse Related Words

By Category

Traditional Weapons
Household Items

By Origin

Swahili
panga, nounn.1pannekoek, nounn.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English