kwaheri
interjection
goodbye; farewell.
Used when parting from someone. Kwa herini can address a group, while kwa heri ya kuonana adds the hope of meeting again.
Forms
- kwa herini
- group-directed farewell
Origins
Kwaheri brings together kwa and heri. Heri ultimately comes from Arabic خَيْر (khayr), a word connected with goodness and wellbeing. Used at parting, the expression is a way of wishing someone well.
Beata Wójtowicz and Lionel Posthumus, Greeting and saying farewell in two Bantu languages: Swahili and Zulu (Studies in African Languages and Cultures, 2021), 16, 19.
Documents the good-wish sense, group-directed kwa herini, and kwa heri ya kuonana.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (1903), scan 123; printed 97.
Records heri as Arabic-derived and documents kwa heri and kwa heri ya kuonana as leave-taking formulas.
Examples
Kwa heri ya kuonana.
Goodbye, until we meet again.
Kwaheri, safari njema.
Goodbye, have a good journey.
Alisema kwaheri kabla ya kuondoka.
They said goodbye before leaving.
Tulimuaga kwa kusema kwaheri.
We saw them off by saying goodbye.
Kwaheri na asante.
Goodbye and thank you.
Nilisikia akisema kwaheri.
I heard them saying goodbye.
Watoto walisema kwaheri kwa mwalimu.
The children said goodbye to the teacher.
Ni wakati wa kusema kwaheri.
It is time to say goodbye.
Aliwapungia mkono na kusema kwaheri.
They waved and said goodbye.
