kitanda
noun
a bed; furniture you sleep on.
Use -tandika kitanda for “to make the bed.” The plural is vitanda; the noun and its modifiers use KI-VI agreement: kitanda kidogo, vitanda vidogo.
Forms
- vitanda
- Class 8 plural
Origins
Comparative work reconstructs an earlier Sabaki form for “bedstead” and links it to a root meaning “spread; extend.” The original naming motive remains uncertain.
A note on the word’s history
Historical linguists reconstruct a Proto-Sabaki predecessor, *ki(n)tanda, meaning “bedstead,” and link it to a root meaning “spread; extend.” A 1903 description of fibre laced across a bedstead offers one possible image behind that link, though the original naming motive is uncertain. Martin Walsh (2021); A. C. Madan (1903)
Sources4
Brenda Aromu Wawire, John Munyui Muchira, and Peter Otiato Ojiambo, Hujambo! A Standards-Based Approach to Introductory Kiswahili, Volume 1 (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, 2025), Printed page 185; PDF page 196.
Supports KI-VI class membership and singular/plural adjective agreement.
Martin Walsh, From dugouts to double outriggers: Lexical insights into the development of Swahili nautical technology (Depok, Indonesia: Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia, 2021), Vol. 22, no. 2, Table 3, pp. 274–275.
Supports the Proto-Sabaki reconstruction *ki(n)tanda “bedstead” and its comparative link to the Proto-Bantu root *-tànd- “spread; extend.”
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), Printed page 360, entry “Tanda”.
Records tanda kitanda as lacing a bedstead with coconut fibre to make a springy mattress; this is historical context, not proof of the word’s original naming motive.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, Swahili Glossary (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas, n.d.), Entries “kitanda” and “-tandika kitanda”.
Supports the bed sense and the collocation “to make the bed.”
Examples
Kitanda hiki ni kipya.
This bed is new.
Vitanda hivi ni vipya.
These beds are new.
Kitanda kidogo kiko chumbani.
The small bed is in the room.
Vitanda vidogo viko chumbani.
The small beds are in the room.
Kitanda cha mtoto kiko karibu na dirisha.
The child’s bed is near the window.
Tandika kitanda kabla ya kuondoka.
Make the bed before leaving.
Amina amelala kitandani.
Amina is asleep in bed.
Kitanda kina godoro jipya.
The bed has a new mattress.
Shuka liko juu ya kitanda.
The sheet is on the bed.
