madala, noun and & adjective

/maˈdaːla//mədɑːlə/
Forms:
mdala, m’dalaShow more Also mdala, m’dala, medalla.
Origin:
IsiZuluShow more IsiZulu, vocative of umadala old one.
A. noun Old man; ‘old one’; often as a term of address, especially to an old Black man.
1960 N.H. Brettell in P.E.N. 1960: New S. Afr. Writing 62A slow-moving one, a grey mdala raggedly shambling by, with sleeping mat and little calabash.
1968 M. Doyle Impala 6Not that his calloused soles needed protection, but the shoes gave him a dignity befitting a madala of his years.
1968 M. Doyle Impala 134Umfaans and madalas.
1970 Forum Vol.6 No.2, 48Now I myself have become old, you do not give me, an old madala, time to stop working, because without work, and you, I myself would die.
1970 Y. Winters Informant, KimberleyYou are too much of an old m’dala to dig up the garden.
1975 M. Mutloatse in New Classic No.1, 57The madala was unashamed to say he had a wife and child in nearly every town in South Africa he had toiled.
1986 Thousand Ways to Die (Nat. Union of Mineworkers) Sept. 32But madala we can’t work here! It’s dangerous!
1991 Personality 11 Mar. 4I went to the front door to see an old beggar walking away. ‘Ho, madala’, I called out, and he turned and came back.
1992 K. Sutton in E. Prov. Herald 2 May 4Who was that old Madala there Beside you on the bench?
B. adjective Old; used especially of old men.
1980 A. Paton Towards Mountain 88A little old man approached me in the main street of Durban with the question, ‘Do you remember me?’...Then he said to me, ‘My you are madala,’ madala being a corrupted Zulu word for ‘old’. He was puzzled that I thought his remark so amusing, but I did not describe to him just how he looked to me.
1985 P. Slabolepszy Sat. Night at Palace 21Forsie (laughing): Voetsak, you mad, man. September: Ai-ai-ai-mdala. Forsie: This!- September: Too old. Forsie (tapping his head): You madala up here, yes.
Old man; ‘old one’; often as a term of address, especially to an old Black man.
Old; used especially of old men.
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IsiZulu
Maburu, plural nounpl. n.madam, nounn.
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