ajao

Yoruba

Alternative forms

  • àjàwò

Etymology

Perhaps from à- +‎ jà +‎ wò, its ability to fly often has it mistaken for a bird or the bat among Yoruba speakers. Possibly cognate with Igala àjà (“nightjar”)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /à.d͡ʒà.ò/

Noun

àjàò

  1. rodents known as anomalures, (specifically) two species of rodent in genus Anomalurus that occur in Nigeria, Beecroft's flying squirrel (Anomalurus beecrofti) and Lord Derby's scaly-tailed squirrel (Anomalurus derbianus), not closely related to the better-known group of flying squirrels of the Sciuridae (squirrel) family
    Synonyms: àlàò, ẹlẹ́mọ̀ọ́
    Àjàò, kò ṣe eku kò ṣe ẹyẹ ― The flying mammal, it's not a rat and yet it's not a bird

Derived terms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.