matatuとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Borrowed from Swahili matatu, a clipping of mapeni matatu (“thirty cents”, literally “three ten-cent coins”) (the flat fare paid for such transportation in the 1960s). The word matatu is from ma- (prefix forming plurals) + -tatu (“three”) (from Proto-Bantu *-tátʊ̀ (“three”)).^[1]

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /məˈtætuː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈtɑˌtu/
• ハイフネーション: ma‧ta‧tu

名詞

matatu (複数形 matatus または matatu)

1. (Kenya, Uganda) A minivan used as a share taxi, especially one operating without a licence.

   Synonyms: (Tanzania) daladala, (Sheng スラング) mathree

   • 1982, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements Habitat News:

     A matatu is also more profitable when driven by its owner than by an employed driver, or if the employee-driver pays in all the earnings and the owner meets the operating costs, rather than when the owner demands a fixed sum of money daily, with the operator keeping the surplus.

   • 2010, Philo Ikonya, Leading the Night, page 102:

     For now, matatus made lanes along both sides of tarmac main roads and went over, around or through potholes depending on their speed.

   • 2017, Kenda Mutongi, Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi, page 98:

     Memories of their sense of trepidation, or even the anger, aboard a matatu could still be visceral.

上位語

• share taxi

派生語

• matatu culture

参考

• makanga
• manamba

参照

Further reading

• matatu on Wikipedia.
• matatus on Wikimedia Commons.