chuma
noun
iron; a piece of iron.
As a noun, chuma means iron or a piece of iron. The distinct verb chuma means to pluck or gather, especially fruit or flowers, and it can also mean to make a profit.
More meanings
- 02verb
to pluck or gather, especially fruit or flowers; to make a profit.
This is a separate homonymous verb, not a meaning derived from the iron noun. The gathering sense is concrete; the commercial sense extends the verb family toward earnings and profit.
Forms
- vyuma
- noun class 7/8 plural
- kuchuma
- verb infinitive
Origins
The noun meaning “iron” is inherited Bantu vocabulary. The separate homonymous verb belongs to another inherited Bantu word family: its older sense was collecting or gathering, and in Sabaki languages it expanded into trade, earnings, and profit.
Sources4
David P. Bresnahan, Inland from Mombasa: East Africa and the Making of the Indian Ocean World (Oakland: University of California Press, 2025), Appendix 3, 149.
Traces the gather verb through Sabaki commercial innovations including trade, earnings, and profit.
Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor (editors), World Loanword Database (Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2009), Swahili meaning codes 9-67 and 12-21.
Records chuma as the class 7/8 iron noun and -chuma as the gather verb, both classified as earlier Bantu with no evidence of borrowing.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), 74.
Separately defines the iron noun and the pluck, gather, and profit verb.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1884), 294.
Records iron with plural vyuma and the pluck, gather, and profit verb senses.
Examples
Kisu hiki kimetengenezwa kwa chuma.
This knife is made of iron.
Mlango wa chuma ni mzito.
The iron door is heavy.
Alinunua kipande cha chuma.
They bought a piece of iron.
Vyuma hivi vimepata kutu.
These pieces of iron have rusted.
Watoto wanachuma maembe.
The children are picking mangoes.
Tulichuma maua asubuhi.
We picked flowers in the morning.
Anachuma matunda shambani.
They are gathering fruit on the farm.
Biashara hiyo inachuma faida.
That business makes a profit.
Alifanya biashara na akachuma faida.
They traded and made a profit.
