qene

plural qenes

1. An Ethiopian literary genre that employs double entendres.

   These studies in qene demand great concentration as well as a contemplative spirit.

   2023, Christine Chaillot, The Traditional Teaching of the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahedo Church: Faith and Spirituality, LIT Verlag Münster, →ISBN, page 80

   2 more examples

   After undergoing extensive training on the methods of memorization and meditation, qene becomes a crucial aspect of the students' academic journey because qene gives them a chance to construe their own perception of reality using religious conviction as a foundation and individual poetic skill as a methodological device.

   2012, Mohammed Girma, Understanding Religion and Social Change in Ethiopia: Toward a Hermeneutic of Covenant, Springer, →ISBN

   This was our qene, our back-and-forth talk. […] Abeselome's qene has always been good; he is sixteen, has been growing up and learning things two years longer than me. He goes to the school and gathers new words, a new story-full every week. Then he comes home and kicks the words to me. I stop them with my eyes, turn them around in my head, kick them back. My qene is good, he tells me, and I know. My qene is from my family; they put it in my name: Meraffe, chapter. My qene goes for days and days. Back when we were children, when Azmera was still here, she joined in the qene.

   2015, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Blue Talk and Love, Riverdale Avenue Books LLC, →ISBN