This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: My name is Zaire..
Actually, from what I can find Zaire originates from the River Zaire and the name of the River Zaire originates from the Portugeuse word zaire which originates from the Kongo word nzere which means, "river that swallows all rivers."So, essentially your name means "river that swallows all rivers."ETA: I've submitted your name, as I have met male Zaires.

This message was edited 2/22/2014, 2:29 AM

vote up1vote down

Replies

Got a bit suspicious of nzere meaning "river that swallows all rivers", looked too precise a meaning for a short word. Turns out nzadi means "a great river" in Kongo (the language group, belonging to the Bantu family, is properly KiKongo, and the people, whose ethnonym comes from a word meaning hunter from a root for collecting food, are the BaKongo, but in English, one often ignores such grammatical niceties, and just says Kongo) according to an online dictionary (which does not include the word nzere) and it is applied to what we call the Congo river (from the same ethnonym). Many places say nzai is a dialectical form of nzadi, but I can't quite find nzere, or the meaning of swallowing all rivers in any resource on the language proper. Typically people say "nzadi or nzere means river that swallows all rivers" or "nzere means river that swallows all rivers", or "nzere means river", but can't find any thing more than that (where is the swallow bit, and where is the river bit?).
vote up1vote down
It was stated on wikipedia, not the best of sources, but thats where I got that information. I guess whoever put the information in Wikipedia got the information from a book on the history of Zaire by Jay Heale & Jui Lin Yong.
I didn't research it any further than that. They also mentioned nzadi meaning the same thing. I don't speak KiKongo so I can't help any further than that.

This message was edited 2/23/2014, 1:49 AM

vote up1vote down