boma

See also: Boma

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Swahili boma (“enclosure, fortified outpost”).

Noun

boma (countable and uncountable, plural bomas) (East Africa)

1. An enclosure usually made of thorn bushes, and latterly of steel fencing, for protection from marauders.
   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 137:

     It was after midnight when Tarzan, with his slow-moving caravan, approached the spot where the elephants lay. Long before they reached it they had been guided by the huge fire the natives had built in the center of a hastily improvised boma, partially for warmth and partially to keep off chance lions.

   • 2004, J H Patterson, The Man Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures, Kessinger Publishing, page 17:

     Orders had been given for the entrance to the boma to be blocked up, and accordingly we listened in the expectation of hearing the lion force his way through the bushes with his prey. As a matter of fact the doorway had not been closed and while we were wondering what the lion could be doing inside the boma for so long, he was outside reconnoitering our position.

   • 1993, Cordelia Dykes Owens, The Eye of the Elephant, Houghton Mifflin Books, →ISBN, page 91:

     Carrying the hot water kettle, Mark follows the footpath through the dark camp to the boma. Surrounded by tall grass the boma is a three-sided structure of sticks and reeds standing at the edge of Marula Puku.

   • 2003, Rosie Woodroffe, Simon Thirgood, Alan and Rabinowitz, People and Wildlife, Conflict Or Co-existence?, Cambridge University Press, page 298,

     Recent replacement of rolled mesh with bomas made of portable, flexible reinforced mesh panels have nearly eliminated predation.

2. A stockade made of bushes and thorns.
   • 2003, Harold Brookfield, Helen Parsons, Muriel Brookfield, Agrodiversity, United Nations University Press, page 108:

     the area has three main groups. The Wamasi and Waarushaare still settled on the boma system where the clan settle in one cluster called a boma comprised of several houses enclosed in a fence leaving the centre open for keeping livestock.

3. A hide.
   • 1922, Mary Hastings Bradley, On the Gorilla trail, quoted in Mary Zeiss Strange (editor), Heart Shots: Women write about hunting, Stackpole Books, page 182,

     You try to arrange the scene so the moonlight will be on the bait with a clear background against which the lion will show up. You pile as much fresh brush as you can on your thicket or boma, as the hiding place is called, for the lion can see as well by day as by night.

4. A hut.
   • 2004, Jacyee Aniagolu-Johnson, Mikela, iUniverse, page 3:

     The exotic beauty of our Masaailand is a marvel to our creator, she thought as she stepped back into her boma, a typical Masaai hut built with grass, dry sticks and twigs and covered with cow dung for insulation.

5. A military or police post or magistracy.
   • 5 February 2004, Zambia: Muyumbwe Boma Needs Police Post (allAfrica.com):

     GWEMBE district police officer-in-charge Adams Gondwe has appealed to Government to put up a police post in Muyumbwe boma to replace one that was washed away by floods last year.

6. A type of fertilizer rich in animal dung.
   • Soil fertility regeneration in Kenya (PDF):

     The cattle are usually corralled overnight which enables farmers to collect farmyard or boma manure.

7. (attributive, uncountable) A method of composting in which animals are bedded on the material before it is used, allowing it to gather urine and dung.
   • 2001, HDRA - the organic organisation, Composting in the Tropics II, page 16 (PDF):

     The Boma method is used on farms where there are animals (cows, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens), which are kept in enclosures where droppings are concentrated.

See also

• kraal

Anagrams

• Bamo, moab, MOAB, Abom, Moab, moAb, MOBA, ambo, Mabo

Bangi

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Bantu *-bʊ̀m.

Verb

boma

1. to kill

Chichewa

Etymology

Borrowed from Swahili boma (“enclosure, military or police outpost”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɓo.ma/

Noun

boma class 5 (plural maboma class 6)

1. government
2. government office or building, or zone where such buildings are located
3. one of the districts of Malawi

Gullah

Alternative forms

• 'boma, bomuh

Etymology

• From Kongo mboma ("the black python").

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bo.mə/, /bɒ.mə/

Noun

boma

1. snake, especially any large and/or brown snake

References

• Lorenzo Dow Turner, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (1969)

Irish

Noun

boma m sg

1. genitive singular of boim

Mutation

Mutated forms of boma

radical	lenition	eclipsis
boma	bhoma	mboma

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “boma”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla [Irish–English Dictionary], Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French bôme, from Dutch boom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔ.ma/
• Rhymes: -ɔma
• Hyphenation: bò‧ma

Noun

boma m (plural bomi)

1. (nautical) boom

Anagrams

• ambo

Kongo

Noun

boma

1. fear

Lingala

Etymology

Borrowed from Bangi boma.

Verb

-boma (infinitive koboma)

1. to kill

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔma/

Noun

boma

1. inflection of bom:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative dual

Ngombe (Congo)

Verb

boma

1. to hit

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From English bomb.

Noun

boma m (genitive singular boma, plural bomaichean)

1. bomb (explosive)

Declension

Declension of boma (type III masculine noun)

indefinite
	singular	plural
nominative	boma	bomaichean
genitive	boma	bhomaichean
dative	boma	bomaichean; bomaicheaibh1
definite
	singular	plural
nominative	(am) boma	(na) bomaichean
genitive	(a') bhoma	(nam) bomaichean
dative	(a') bhoma	(na) bomaichean; bomaicheaibh1
vocative	bhoma	bhomaichean

¹ archaic or poetic form

Derived terms

• boma atamach (“atomic bomb”)

Further reading

• Edward Dwelly (1911), “boma”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN

Slavomolisano

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian bomba.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bômḁ/

Noun

boma f

1. bomb
   • 2010, Luigi Peca, La guerre à Acquaviva:

     Nu večaru, oni dan proprja ka je pala boma, oni je naprtija na mala robe doma, halje ka jimaša po hižu.

     One evening, exactly on that day, when the bomb fell, he loaded up a few things in the house, the clothes he had in the house.

Declension

Declension of boma (series-2a fem)

	singular	plural
nominative	boma	bome
genitive	bome	bomi
dative	bomu	bomi
accusative	bomu	bome
locative	bomu	bome
instrumental	bomom	bomi

References

• Breu, W., Mader Skender, M. B. & Piccoli, G. 2013. Oral texts in Molise Slavic (Italy): Acquaviva Collecroce. In Adamou, E., Breu, W., Drettas, G. & Scholze, L. (eds.). 2013. EuroSlav2010: Elektronische Datenbank bedrohter slavischer Varietäten in nichtslavophonen Ländern Europas – Base de données électronique de variétés slaves menacées dans des pays européens non slavophones. Konstanz: Universität / Paris: Lacito (Internet Publication).

Swahili

Etymology

Uncertain, though almost certainly not from an acronym of "British Overseas Military Attachment", which is a folk etymology.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

Noun

boma class V (plural maboma class VI)

1. enclosure for cattle, kraal
2. fortified encampment or settlement
3. fortified military or police outpost, fort or fortress

   Synonyms: ngome, sera, buruji

Descendants

• → English: boma

Tumbuka

Noun

boma class 5

1. a walled enclosure
2. a government station
3. the government
4. district

References

• William Y. Turner (1996), Tumbuka/Tonga-English and English - Tumbuka/Tonga Dictionary‎^[1], Central Africana Limited, page 10
• Tumbuka Wikipedia

Zia

Noun

boma

1. knee