Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A member of a Bantu people of southeast Africa, primarily inhabiting northeast Natal province in South Africa.
- noun The Nguni language of this people, closely related to Xhosa.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A member of a warlike and superior branch of the Kafir race of South Africa, divided into many tribes.
- Of or pertaining to the Zulus: as, the Zulu language (a principal member of the Bantu group of languages) or government.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Any member of the tribe of Zulus; a Zulu-Kaffir. See
zulus . - noun (Philol.) One of the most important members of the South African, or Bantu, family of languages, spoken partly in Natal and partly in Zululand, but understood, and more or less in use, over a wide territory, at least as far north as the Zambezi; -- called also
Zulu-Kaffir . - noun a word used in spoken communications to represent the letter Z.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The letter
Z in theICAO spelling alphabet . - adjective Pertaining to the Zulu people, culture, or language.
- noun An
individual member of the Zulu people. - noun The letter
Z in theICAO spelling alphabet - noun A
designation fortime along theprime meridian ;UTC ;Zulu time . - proper noun An
African ethnic group living mainly in theKwaZulu-Natal Province in easternSouth Africa . - proper noun The
language of these people, aBantu language;isiZulu .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a community of Negroid people in eastern South Africa
- noun a Bantu language of considerable literary importance in southeastern Africa
- noun a member of the tall Negroid people of eastern South Africa; some live in KwaZulu-Natal under the traditional clan system but many now work in the cities
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Zulu.
Examples
-
WELCOME MSOMI, DIRECTOR, "ZULU MACBETH": The similarities between "Macbeth" and Uma Botha (ph), it's exactly the same things, where Macabiu (ph), the princess in the Zulu family, instigated and got his brothers and cousins to kill King Shaga (ph) so that King Denun (ph) could take over.
-
Polygamy is accepted in Zulu culture and legal in the new South Africa, and Zuma makes no apologies for his full love life.
Jacob’s Ladder 2009
-
Polygamy is accepted in Zulu culture and legal in the new South Africa, and Zuma makes no apologies for his full love life.
Jacob’s Ladder 2009
-
Our fact checker, Shaka Zulu, is checking the facts of this fact to be checked.
This Just In 2008
-
Finally in 2007, her story was heard in South Africa for the first time in English, Zulu, and Xhosa.
“AIDS is not going to bring me down”-Thembi Ngubane, 1985-2009 « Gender Across Borders 2009
-
Inevitably we're running late Mardi Gras morning (all that preening takes time), but fortunately, Zulu is also always running late, so we did manage to catch the rest of it.
Zulu Slimbolala 2006
-
These gorgeous little tots who were all under six years old, sang at the top of their voices in Zulu with all the appropriate actions, that is arms aloft and bosoms clutched and feet stamped as children love to do.
'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005
-
The little girl … was present, she was crying … [T] he boy who was carrying this other one, he said in Zulu that this boy is already dead and this girl kept on calling his name, she kept on calling him, Zolile, Zolile, as she was crying and weeping. 54
'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005
-
Before that European travelers like AF Gardiner (1836) and Catherine Barter (1855) had focused their attention on documenting, in English, Zulu culture, traditions, history and customs as they saw them at the time.
ANC Today 2007
-
Funa = lighter pilot who was partnered with Clun before Clun's death; (name means desire in Zulu)
Archive 2004-12-12 Maggie Jochild 2004
herekevinbe commented on the word Zulu
I'm not sure if this is also true in isiZulu, but in Xhosa (another South African language closely related to Zulu), the word zulu means "blue".
September 13, 2014