Masvingo

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A city in the southeastern part of Zimbabwe, known for its nearby historic ruins of Great Zimbabwe
2. A town located in southeastern Zimbabwe that serves as the capital of its Masvingo Province
3. The southeastern Zimbabwean city and provincial capital situated near the famous ancient stone ruins

Etymology: Masvingo is a city in south-eastern Zimbabwe, and its name is a Shona word rather than a colonial import. It was the place known to Europeans as Fort Victoria, founded in 1890 by the British South Africa Company during the expansion of colonial rule north of the Limpopo, and the name "Masvingo" was reinstated after independence in 1980. The area's name is commonly linked to the Shona word "vhingo" or "zvingo", referring to the stone-walled enclosures, the great ruins of which lie nearby at Great Zimbabwe. The name is generally glossed as "place of walls" or "walled place", a reference to the stone enclosures built by Shona-speaking peoples in the region centuries before European arrival. Because "Masvingo" is a place-name rather than a word with a documented dictionary history, the precise grammar of its prefix is best read as locative, marking it as a place.