pesa
noun
money.
Una pesa? asks whether someone has money.
Origins
Pesa is the everyday word for money. It was also the name of the small copper pice used in Zanzibar. The earlier source of the word is still under review.
Thilo Schadeberg, in Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor (editors), Swahili vocabulary: pesa (Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2009), Word and Loanword Information.
Records pesa as money, and notes a historical small Zanzibar coin.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1884), Printed page 371, Pesa.
Records pesa as the pice, the small copper coin then used in Zanzibar.
Examples
Nina pesa.
I have money.
Una pesa?
Do you have money?
Sina pesa.
I do not have money.
Tunahitaji pesa.
We need money.
Nimetuma pesa.
I have sent money.
Nimepata pesa.
I have received money.
Ninaweka pesa hapa.
I am putting money here.
Nitatuma pesa kesho.
I will send money tomorrow.
Nahitaji pesa ya chakula.
I need money for food.
