Khoisan
UK /ˈkɔɪsɑːn/ · US /ˈkɔɪˌsɑn/ proper noun, noun
Forms Khoisans Khoi-San
- proper noun The group of languages associated with the Khoisan including the Khoi, Kx'a and Tuu families, sometimes to the inclusion of the Hadza and Sandawe language isolates of Tanzania.
- noun A member of the group of non-Bantu Southern African indigenous people: the Khoi or San people.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Khoi + San, from the pastoral Khoi tribe (formerly also called Hottentots) and the hunter-gatherer San (also known as Bushmen).
Coined by Isaac Schapera in 1930, in linguistic usage since the 1950s (following Joseph Greenberg, Studies in African Linguistic Classification, 1955).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Khoisan”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details