asante
interjection
thank you.
The everyday expression of thanks; sana intensifies it.
Forms
- ahsante
- variant
- asanteni
- thank you alladdressed to more than one person
Origins
Asante is the everyday Swahili thanks. It entered from Arabic أَحْسَنْتَ (aḥsanta, "well done"), adapted into the everyday form people use now.
Sources3
Sergio Baldi, Dictionary of Arabic Loanwords in the Languages of Central and East Africa (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2021), entry 649, 88.
Traces asante / ahasante to Arabic أَحْسَنْتَ (aḥsanta), “well done.”
Peter Mwangi, Elementary Swahili (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Libraries, 2020), Glossary, entries Asante and Asanteni.
Attests asanteni as thanks addressed to more than one person.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), 5.
Records Ahsante / Asant as thanks, explaining the Arabic “you have done well.”
Examples
Asante sana.
Thank you very much.
Asante kwa msaada wako.
Thank you for your help.
Nilisema asante kabla ya kuondoka.
I said thank you before leaving.
Asante kwa chakula.
Thank you for the food.
Tulimshukuru na kusema asante.
We thanked them and said thank you.
Asante, nitakupigia baadaye.
Thank you, I will call you later.
Watoto walisema asante kwa zawadi.
The children said thank you for the gift.
Asante tena kwa kunisubiri.
Thank you again for waiting for me.
Alituma ujumbe wa asante.
They sent a thank-you message.
