Etymology

zilizopendwa

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Today it means: A genre of urban East African music recorded in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Full definition →

Swahili zilizopendwa
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The story

  1. Swahili · borrowed fromzilizopendwa“those that were loved (inanimate)”
  2. English todayzilizopendwa

From Swahili zilizopendwa (“those that were loved (inanimate)”), probably because the genre arose in the post-independence era in East Africa and was loved by locals for its representation of freedom.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.