Kru
/kruː
/noun (plural same)
1A member of a seafaring people of the coast of Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast).There are also references to the Soce of Senegal, Songhay and Moors of Mali, and the Kru of Liberia....
- One of the most significant African communities to find employment on European ships travelling through West African waters was the Kru, from the Liberian coast.
- The variety originated first in contacts from the 17th century between native speakers of British English and such coastal peoples as the Kru and then in the settlement of repatriated blacks.
2 [mass noun] The Niger-Congo language of the Kru, consisting of a large number of highly differentiated dialects.Liberia's population consists of over two dozen ethnic groups, which fall into three main language groups: Kru (east and southeast), Mel, and Mande (north and far west)....
- The number of American who spoke Kru was 65,848 in 1990, compared to 24,506 in 1980, which is a 168.7 percent increase.
adjective
Relating to the Kru or their language.Any reconstruction of Kru ethnicity and history is, at best, difficult....
- An incident that occurred in the Wouri estuary around 1830 between English traders and Duala and Kru paddlers speaks to the size of the canoes and the maritime skills of indigenous peoples.
- The southwest Kru peoples are probably the oldest of Cote d' Ivoire's present-day ethnic groups, the largest tribe of which is the Bete.
Origin
From a West African language.
Rhymes
- refounder
- refoundress
- refount
- refract
- refractable
- refracted angle
- refractedly
- refracter
- refractile
- refractility
- refracting angle
- refracting telescope
- refraction
- refractional
- refraction circle
- refraction error
- refraction index
- refractionist
- refraction profiling
- refraction shooting
- refractious
- refractive
- refractive error
- refractive index
- refractively