Etymology

Habesha

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Today it means: a member of a Semitic-speaking ethnic group, of Christian faith, between the Blue Nile and the Red Sea (whether Amhara, Tigrayan or Tigrinya) Full definition →

ti ሓበሻ ← Amharic ሐበሻ ← Ge'ez ሓበሠት
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The story

  1. Ge'ez · derived fromሓበሠት
  2. Amharic · borrowed fromሐበሻ
  3. ti · borrowed fromሓበሻ
  4. English todayHabesha

From Tigrinya ሓበሻ (ḥabäša) or Amharic ሐበሻ (ḥäbäša) (also attested in many other variants: ሀበሻ (häbäša), ሃበሻ (habäša), ሀቢሻ (häbiša), አበሻ (ʾäbäša)), from Ge'ez ሓበሠት (ḥabäśät), ሓበሥ (ḥabäś), from earlier inscriptional and unvocalized Ge'ez ሐበሠተ (ḤBŚT) as attested in at least one 4th-century inscription from the Kingdom of Aksum.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.