Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of a West African people primarily inhabiting coastal Senegal.
  • noun The Atlantic language of this people, widely used as a lingua franca in Senegal.

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

  • adjective pertaining to the Wolof people or their language
  • noun an individual of the Wolof people
  • proper noun A West African people, mostly in Senegal
  • proper noun The language of these people.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the West African language of the Wolof in Senegal; related to Fula

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Wolof wɔlɔf.]

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Examples

  • Interestingly Burkina Faso means exactly the same thing but in Wolof

    Is There Anybody Out There? « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009

  • MARTIN: And I wanted to mention that you are multilingual and you speak English - as people can tell, obviously - and French and Wolof, which is I believe your traditional language.

    N'Dour's Popularity Continues to Rise 2007

  • For example, he suggests that honky is from Wolof hong, meaning “pink,” or “red.”

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • One scholar has suggested that Wolof is also the source of certain “Americanisms,” in fact Africanisms that have entered mainstream American English.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • Many are naturally from American English, but others that have been floated apart from Choctaw and Wolof include Scots, Finnish, German, Russian, Greek, French, Occitan, and even Old English and Latin.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • One scholar has suggested that Wolof is also the source of certain “Americanisms,” in fact Africanisms that have entered mainstream American English.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • Many are naturally from American English, but others that have been floated apart from Choctaw and Wolof include Scots, Finnish, German, Russian, Greek, French, Occitan, and even Old English and Latin.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • For example, he suggests that honky is from Wolof hong, meaning “pink,” or “red.”

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • The Wolof and Bamara people from the Senegal River delivered the melismatic singing and stringed instrumentation that led to the banjo and the blues.

    The Bushman Way of Tracking God PhD Bradford Keeney 2010

  • And that jive is from the Wolof jev, “to talk disparagingly.”

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

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