mara
noun
time; an occasion.
Use it to count occasions, such as mara moja (once) or mara mbili (twice).
Origins
Mara comes from Arabic مَرَّة (marra, “a time, an instance”).
Sources4
Thilo Schadeberg; edited by Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor, World Loanword Database CLDF (2009), Swahili lexical record 72141734625492496 (mara).
Records mara for a recurring occasion. This lexical record alone does not establish the word’s origin.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1884), PDF page 123.
Explains counting occasions with mara moja and mara mbili. Historical Zanzibar evidence.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary (University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center), mara glossary rows.
Gives instance and time as meanings of mara.
- mara (Wiktionary)
States mara is borrowed from Arabic مَرَّة (marra).
Examples
Nimefika hapa mara moja tu.
I’ve only been here once.
Nimeenda Mombasa mara mbili.
I’ve been to Mombasa twice.
Nimerudia mara tatu.
I’ve repeated it three times.
Mara ngapi?
How many times?
Ni mara yangu ya kwanza hapa.
It’s my first time here.
Ni mara yangu ya pili Kenya.
It’s my second time in Kenya.
Tunazungumza mara nyingi.
We talk often.
Alikuja mara moja tu.
He came only once.
Tutakutana mara nyingine.
We will meet another time.
