Friday, 30 May 2014

Word To Use Today: babalas.

English speakers steal words from all over the place, and babalas is one we've stolen from Zulu.

At the moment, babalas is used mostly in South African English. It means drunk or hungover.

Babalas is particularly valuable in being a word that's almost impossible to say when drunk, especially in the phrase I'm most definitely not babalas.

So there we are. English used not to have a word for drunk or hungover, and now we do.

Ngiyabonga* to the Zulus!


Word To Use Today: babalas. This word came to English in the 1900s from Afrikaans, and before that from the Zulu I-babalazi, which means drunk.

*Thank you!

1 comment:



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