mzee

plural mzees · plural wazee

1. AfricaEastAn elder (old person).

   It is difficult to be both and the older mzees resent the irregularity of the position.

   2005, Ernest Hemingway, Robert William Lewis, Under Kilimanjaro

   3 more examples

   Kenyatta was recognized at the time of his death in mid-1978 as Mzee, "the wise old one," not only by his own people but by a wide array of world leaders.

   1993, Funk & Wagnalls Corporation, Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, volume 15, page 233

   ...every President since Teddy Roosevelt saw Africa in the faces of her mzees, in their English suits or tribal robes...

   2003, Ward S Just, The American Ambassador

   ...we arranged an impromptu interview with this reluctant and less than candid local mzee, who lived near the Tsavo boundary.

   2006, Edward I Steinhart, Black poachers, white hunters: a social history of hunting in colonial Kenya

   Synonyms: senior, senior citizen