irimũ

Kikuyu

Etymology 1

Some researchers have related this term with the following other Bantu terms:

Kamba eimu (“ogre”);[1][2] Chaga irimu “ogre”,[3][4][1][5]
Swahili kuzimu (“the place of spirits”),[1][2] m(u)zimu (“the place for offerings”),[1][5] zimwi (“ogre”)[5]
Nyanga (Congo) kirimu (“dragon”)[1]
Zulu izimu (“ogre, cannibal”);[3][1][5] Sotho ledimo (“ogre, cannibal”)[1][5]
Duala edimo (“spirit of the departed”)[1][2]

Compare Proto-Bantu *-lîma (“spirit”) reconstructed by Kohl-Larsen (1963)[4] and *-lîmu (“spirit”) reconstructed by Dammann (1970).[6] See also Kikuyu mũrimũ (“disease (formerly thought to be caused by supernatural beings)”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ìɾímóꜜ/
As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 7 with a disyllabic stem, together with njata, and so on.
  • (Kiambu)

Noun

irimũ class 5 (plural marimũ)

  1. ogre[8] who appears in folktales and tends to eat human beings[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ìɾìmóꜜ/

Noun

irimũ class 8

  1. plural of kĩrimũ

References
  1. Miyamoto, Masaoki (2009). スワヒリ文学の風土, pp. 163–164. Tokyo: Daisanshokan. →ISBN
  2. Werner, Alice (1933). Myths and Legends of the Bantu.
  3. Beaujard, Phillipe (1982). "Un conte malgache: des ‘Enfants chez l’Ogre’," p. 61. Cahiers de Littérature orale (12), 39–80.
  4. Kohl-Larsen, Ludwig (1963). Das Kürbisungeheuer und die Ama’irmi: ostafrikanische Riesengeschichten, S. 9. E. Röth-Verlag.
  5. Aranikian, M. H. and A. Werner (1925). The Mythology of All Races: Armenian and African, p. 404. New York: Marshall Jones. Reprint, New York: Cooper Square, 1964.
  6. Dammann, E. (1970). "Urbantu limu »Geist« und seine Derivate", S. 64. In H. Spitzbardt (ed.) Sprache und Gesellschaft, S. 62–76. Jena: Friedrich-Schiller Universität.
  7. Yukawa, Yasutoshi (1981). "A Tentative Tonal Analysis of Kikuyu Nouns: A Study of Limuru Dialect." In Journal of Asian and African Studies, No. 22, 75–123.
  8. “irimũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 387. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Further reading
  • Adagala, Kavetsa and Wanjiku Mukabi Kabira (eds.) (1985). Kenyan Oral Narratives: A Selection. Nairobi and Kampala and Dar es Salaam: East African Eductional Publishers. →ISBN
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