afeimojo

Yoruba

Àfèìmòjò (1)

Àfèìmòjò (2)

Alternative forms

• àfèrèmọ̀jò, àfè-ìmòjò, àfèmòjò, àfèbòjò, àfèèbòjò

Etymology

Possibly from àfè (“striped grass mouse”) +‎ ì (“negation marker”) +‎ mọ̀ (“to know”) +‎ òjò (“rain”), literally “The rat-like creature that does not know rain”, in reference to the fact that the aardvark is known to burrow and lives nocturnally (and therefore rarely encounters rain), associating it with the mouse àfè because of their similar characteristics.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /à.fè.ì.mò.d͡ʒò/

Noun

àfèìmòjò

1. aardvark

   Synonym: àkìrìbòjò

   ẹmọ́ kú, ojú òpó dá; àfèìmòjò kú, ẹnu isà ń ṣọ̀fọ̀ ― The mouse dies, the surface of the pole becomes vacant, the aardvark dies, and the burrow goes into mourning (proverb on tragedy)

2. Striped grass mouse, known for its very long tail (in proportion to the rest of its body)

   Synonyms: àfè, èfì, eku àfèìmòjò

References

• Awoyale, Yiwola (2008 December 19) Global Yoruba Lexical Database v. 1.0‎^[1], number LDC2008L03, Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium, →DOI, →ISBN
• Church Missionary Society (1913 January) Dictionary of the Yoruba language‎^[2], Lagos, Nigeria: Church Missionary Society