mali
UK /ˈmɑːli/ · US /ˈmɑli/ noun, proper noun
Also a form of malus
Forms malis mallee molly malley
- noun (India, South Asia) A member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener.
- noun (South Africa) Money, cash.
- proper noun A country in West Africa. Official name: Republic of Mali.
- noun (slang, MLE, MTE) A Somali.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Hindi माली (mālī, “gardener”), from Sanskrit माली (mālī, “wreath-maker, garland-maker; florist; gardener”), मालिन् (mālin, “florist; gardener”), from माला (mālā, “wreath, garland; chaplet, crown”).
Borrowed from Xhosa imali, Zulu imali (“money”), both ultimately from Swahili mali (“riches, wealth; property”), from Arabic مَال (māl, “money; affluence, wealth; possessions, property”). Some dictionaries suggest an origin in English money instead, making no attempt to account for the distribution of the loanword nor the proposed shift from /n/ to /l/, both of which make this unlikely.
Borrowed from Latin malī, a plural form of malus (“adverse, unfavourable, unfortunate, unlucky; destructive, hurtful; bad, evil”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“erroneous, false; bad, evil”)).
Inherits its name from the Mali Empire, in turn from Mandinka or Dyula mali (“hippopotamus”).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “mali”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details