itimũ

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records itimu as an equivalent of English spear in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Kamba itumu as its equivalent.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ìtìmóꜜ/

As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into mbori class which includes mbũri, ikinya (pl. makinya), kĩhaato, maguta, mbembe, mũgeka, mũrata, nyaga, ũhoro, riitho, riũa, rũrĩmĩ, Kamau (“man's name”), etc.^[2] Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 3 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩhaato, mbembe, kiugo, and so on. Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including bũrũri (pl. mabũrũri), ikara, ikinya, kanitha (pl. makanitha), kiugo, kĩhaato, maguta, mũgeka, mũkonyo, mũrata, mwana, mbembe, mbũri, nyaga, riitho, riũa, rũrĩmĩ (pl. nĩmĩ), ũhoro (pl. mohoro), and so on.^[3]

Noun

itimũ class 5 (plural matimũ)

1. spear

Derived terms

(Proverbs)

• igego rĩthekagia itimũ

References

1. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 54–55. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2. Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).
3. Yukawa, Yasutoshi (1981). "A Tentative Tonal Analysis of Kikuyu Nouns: A Study of Limuru Dialect." In Journal of Asian and African Studies, No. 22, 75–123.

• “itimũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.