Benin
UK /bɪˈniːn/ · US /bəˈnin/ proper noun
- proper noun People's Republic of Benin, from 1975 to 1990
- proper noun Republic of Benin, since 1990
- proper noun A historical kingdom in West Africa, in present-day Nigeria.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from French Bénin, from Portuguese Benim, from Itsekiri Ubinu. The term is first documented in the late 1490s upon Portuguese contact with the Itsekiri Kingdom. The etymology is unclear; it appears Benin was always used as an exonym (probably by the Itsekiri and Yoruba) for the Benin Kingdom, which was always referred to as Ẹ̀dó, and older Ìgòdòmigòdò. The leading hypothesis is that the term originally derived from Yoruba ilẹ̀ ìbínú (“land of anger”), which emerges from a folk myth regarding purported founder of the Benin empire, Oranmiyan, who was a Yoruba prince, who referred to the region by this phrase because of his frustration in ruling the land.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Benin”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details