Kangas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Brightly patterned rectangular cloths of printed cotton, often with a Swahili proverb, that women in East Africa wear as wraps or skirts
2. Colourful printed cotton wraps, frequently bearing a saying or proverb, worn draped around the body by women in parts of East Africa
3. Lengths of vividly decorated cotton fabric, commonly inscribed with a message, that are worn wrapped around the body across East African coastal communities

Etymology: "Kangas" is the plural of "kanga," a brightly printed cotton cloth worn across East Africa, and the word reached English by way of Swahili. Its ultimate ancestor is the Proto-Bantu "nkángà," the reconstructed root behind the Swahili term "kanga," which English borrowed directly. The source also lists two unrelated words spelled the same way. In Sikhism, "kanga" is a comb, from Punjabi "kaṅghā," and it is one of the five articles of faith worn by initiated Sikhs. Rhyming slang, meanwhile, uses "kangaroo" to mean "screw," so "kangas" is not a reliable clue to the cloth without context.