Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun South Africa, often derogatory white person

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Zulu umlungu.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word umlungu.

Examples

  • Some of the ideas of the previously dominant ruling group during the centuries of white minority rule in our country continue to influence the national consciousness, including some among the formerly oppressed - as represented, for instance, by the colloquial expression, "umlungu mdala!"

    ANC Today 2006

  • Or how someone perhaps to whom you had given a tip would say thinking they were praising you, "h, you're my white boss, ungu umlungu wam, o lekhoa laka" or how black domestic workers would declare proudly that they did not work for black employers = AD this even if they would be paid more.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2006

  • Some of the ideas of the previously dominant ruling group during the centuries of white minority rule in our country continue to influence the national consciousness, including some among the formerly oppressed - as represented, for instance, by the colloquial expression, "umlungu mdala!"

    ANC Today 2006

  • These lost all sense of self-esteem and confidence in themselves, repeating as a matter of course - umlungu mdala! the whites are naturally superior!

    Speech at the Youth Conference on Nation Building 2000

  • All round them the Zulu impi gathered and thickened, crying, "_Bulala umlungu_" (Kill the white man) as they closed in upon them at a run.

    Swallow: a tale of the great trek Henry Rider Haggard 1890

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.