Nago
(ˈnɑːgəʊ)
[f. Ewe anagó a Yoruba Negro.]
a. A member of an African Negro people, originally Yoruba-speaking, of whom many were taken to the Americas as slaves. b. The language of this people, now applied spec. to the lingua franca or pidgin form spoken by this people in Brazil. Also attrib. or as adj.
| 1775 Jamaica Gaz. 25 Mar., [A man] of the Nago country..says his master died when he was a boy and has been run-away ever since. 1793 B. Edwards Hist. Brit. Colonies in W. Indies II. 73 Many of the Whidah Negroes are found to be circumcised... It is practised universally by the Nagoes. 1825 R. Bickell W. Indies 43 Frank, a Nago, 5 ft 71/4 in. no brand-mark, country marks on his face. 1942 D. Pierson Negroes in Brazil iii. 73 It is likely that Nagô was not maintained in a pure form but came to be a patois containing numerous elements from other African dialects as well as from Portuguese. 1949 Caribbean Quarterly I. i. 11, 33 were Nagoes..from the Slave Coast. 1968 W. J. Samarin in J. A. Fishman Readings Sociol. of Lang. 665 As linguistic curios a few others might be cited:..Nago, probably based on Yoruba and ultimately used only in certain Brazilian pseudo-African cults. |