Etymology

Senegal

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Today it means: A river on the border between Senegal and Mauritania in West Africa. Full definition →

Arabic زنجي ← Persian زَنگ
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The story

  1. Persian · derived fromزَنگ“Land of the Blacks”
  2. Arabic · derived fromزنجي“Zanj, Negro”
  3. English todaySenegal

Probably from a Portuguese transliteration of the name of the Zenaga (possibly from Arabic زنجي (“Zanj, Negro”), from Persian زَنگ (“Land of the Blacks”) Etymology 3. Or a combination of the supreme deity in Serer religion (Rog Sene) and o gal meaning body of water in the Serer language.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.