mchungwa (Swahili)

Where does "mchungwa" come from?

The Swahili word 'mchungwa' refers specifically to an orange tree. It is formed by combining the prefix 'm-', which is used to denote plants in certain noun classes, with 'chungwa', the Swahili word for the orange fruit itself.

Full etymology tree

• mchungwa (Swahili), 'orange tree'
  • affix m- (Swahili), '[[Appendix:Swahili_noun_classes#M-wa class|m class_((I))]] noun prefix and adjective agreement prefix, denoting mostly people'
  • derived chungwa (Swahili), 'orange (fruit)'

Ancestors

• m (Swahili)
• chungwa (Swahili)

Updated June 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris