bwana

Borrowed from Swahili bwana (“master”), from Arabic أَبُونَا (ʔabūnā, “our father”). Doublet of abbot.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbwɑːnə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːnə

bwana (plural bwanas)

1. (slang) Big boss, important person.
   • 2005, David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, New York: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 208:

     It is Jim C.’s custom always to say “Up Simba” in a fake-deep bwana voice as he hefts the camera to his right shoulder […]

Not always used as a favorable term.

• Waban, ba-wan, bawan, nawab

bwana

1. (Mpakwithi) bream

• Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 185

Borrowed from Swahili bwana (“master”), from Arabic أَبُونَا (ʔabūnā, “our father”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɓʷá.na/

bwána class 1a (plural abwána class 2)

1. boss, master

bwana m (invariable)

1. bwana

• buana

From Sanskrit भुवन (bhuvana, “the world”).

bwana

1. the world

   Synonym: dunya

   • c. 14th century, Astana Gede inscriptions:

     ...pakena gawe rahhayu pakĕn hĕbĕl jaya dina buana.

     ... should do good in order to prosper long in this world.

   • c. 1518, Sanghyang Siksakandang Karesian (Kropak 630), 14 recto:

     Ini na paṅgihkĕnön dina sakala, taṅtu batara dina bwana pakĕn pagĕh jadi manik sakuruṅṅan.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• ⇒ Sundanese: buana (“continent”)

• (abbreviation) Bw.

From Arabic أَبُونَا (ʔabūnā, “our father”).

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

bwana class V (plural mabwana class VI)

1. master, lord
2. mister, Mr.
3. boss
4. husband

• bibi

• → Chichewa: bwana
• → English: bwana