Burundians

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. The citizens or inhabitants of Burundi, a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of East Africa
2. People who come from or are nationals of Burundi, a nation in central-eastern Africa bordering Rwanda and Tanzania
3. Those born in or belonging to the republic of Burundi, an East African nation whose population is largely Hutu and Tutsi

Etymology: The plural "burundians" is simply the plural of "Burundian," a noun for a person from Burundi, a small country in East Africa bordering Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The name Burundi is a place name, and the demonym is formed by adding the suffix "-an" to it, the same suffix that gives English words like "American," "Lutheran" and "Victorian." That suffix has a long pedigree. It descends from a very old Indo-European ending that marked belonging or origin, passed into Latin as "-anus," and reached English through Old French and Middle English. Its job is always the same: to turn a place or name into an adjective or a noun for its people, so "Burundian" is one of the countless English words built this way.