Benin is a narrow West African country, the birthplace of vodun. Travel to Benin, born in Benin, the south of Benin.
Vodun, the religion that became voodoo in the Caribbean and America, began here and is an official religion of the country. Benin was called Dahomey until 1975, and the Kingdom of Dahomey was famous for its regiment of women soldiers.
1nounbeninA country in West Africa.
“Benin lies between Togo and Nigeria in West Africa.”
benin is a country.
French
Bénin
English
Benin
English, today
benin
Benin Borrowed from French Bénin. French Bénin, from Portuguese Benim, from its Ubinu. The term is first documented in the late 1490s upon Portuguese contact with the Itsekiri Kingdom. The etymology is unclear; it appears Benin was always used as an exonym (probably by the Itsekiri and Yoruba) for the Benin Kingdom, which was always referred to as Ẹ̀dó, and older Ìgòdòmigòdò. The leading hypothesis is that the term originally derived from yo ilẹ̀ ìbínú (“land of anger”), which emerges from a folk myth regarding purported founder of the Benin empire, Oranmiyan, who was a Yoruba prince, who referred to the region by this phrase because of his frustration in ruling the land.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
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