purura
verb
to strip leaves off a branch by pulling it through the hand; by extension, to rub or strip off.
Purura is standard Swahili, though rare in everyday Nairobi speech. Its older literal sense describes stripping leaves from a branch; in the HATE lyric it is read in a smoking register as drawing smoke into the mouth. Some online Sheng lists gloss purura as “to play,” but Lexifari has not verified that as a separate sense.
Also to draw or suck something in through the mouth.
In this Kenyan smoking context: to pull on or take a drag of a joint.
Forms
- kupurura
- infinitive
- pururia
- applicative
- pururika
- stative
- pururana
- reciprocal
- pururisha
- causative
- pururwa
- passive
Lyric usage
Origins
Attested in early twentieth-century Swahili dictionaries for stripping leaves from a branch. TUKI (2000) also records a transferred sense, drawing something in through the mouth, which is the sense used in Kenyan smoking slang and in this lyric.
TUKI, Kamusi ya Kiswahili–Kiingereza (Dar es Salaam: Institute of Kiswahili Research, 2000), entry: purura.
Records purura as “pull leaves” and “pull in through the mouth,” and lists the applicative, stative, reciprocal, causative, and passive derivatives.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), printed 323.
Records purura for rubbing or stripping something off, including leaves removed from a branch by drawing it through the hand.
Examples
Alipurura majani kutoka kwenye tawi.
They stripped the leaves from the branch.
Purura majani kutoka kwenye tawi.
Strip the leaves from the branch.
Usipurure majani yote.
Do not strip off all the leaves.
Wakulima walipurura majani yaliyokauka.
The farmers stripped off the dry leaves.
Anapurura majani taratibu.
They are stripping off the leaves carefully.
Tulipurura majani kabla ya kukata matawi.
We stripped off the leaves before cutting the branches.
Mtoto alipenda kupurura majani kwa mkono.
The child liked stripping leaves by hand.
Ni rahisi kupurura majani haya kwa mkono.
It is easy to strip these leaves by hand.
Walijifunza kupurura majani bila kuvunja tawi.
They learned to strip leaves without breaking the branch.
