benin
/bəˈnin/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.03 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A country in West Africa, formerly Dahomey.
name
A country in West Africa, formerly Dahomey.
name
A historical kingdom in West Africa, in present-day Nigeria.
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bəˈnin/
- British English: /bɪˈniːn/
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Countries of the world