kgosi, noun

/ˈkɔːsi/
Forms:
Also kosi, and with initial capital.
Origin:
Sotho, SetswanaShow more Sotho and Setswana.
In traditional Sotho or Tswana society: a chief or ruler; also used as a form of address, and as a title. Also transferred sense. Cf. inkosi sense 1 a and b.
1824 W.J. Burchell Trav. II. 272The word kosi in the Sichuàna language signifies rich, and is by metonymy therefore used to imply a chief.
1824 W.J. Burchell Trav. II. 364The different members of his family, and the kosies or subordinate chieftains, formed round us a circle two or three deep.
1908 Rand Daily Mail 11 Sept. 7Grades of rank [in the Amalaita] were established. Every leader became a ‘kgosi’ or ‘morena’ with sergeants and corporals beneath him.
1984 D. Beckett in Frontline May 14There were more unintroduced outsiders coming to plead with Kelly. ‘The Boer has given me until tomorrow night to get off his farm. Please, kgosi (chief), what can I do?’
1990 City Press 11 Mar. 7The urbane Mr Botha said the Bop dust-up was the work of ‘the criminal element’ and that the doors of the Rre Kgosi Lukas Mangope..were ‘always wide open’.
a chief or ruler; also used as a form of address, and as a title. Also transferred sense.
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18241990

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Sesotho and Sesotho sa Leboa
Setswana
Kgatla, nounn.kgotla, nounn.
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