English Explanatory Dictionary

djembe

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A large, rope-tuned, skin-covered drum played with the bare hands, used in West African and some fusion music.

Pronunciation

/ˈd͡ʒɛmbeɪ/

Word forms

djembe djembes djembé jembe jenbe djimbe jimbe dyinbe

Etymology

From French djembé, from Mandinka jembe which derives from the Bambara language, "djé" is the verb for "gather" and "bé" translates as "peace." As a result, "Anke djé, anke bé" which translates to "everyone gather together in peace" and defines the drum's purpose.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on D Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary