Word.ws English Dictionary

Habesha

Habesha noun: a member of a Semitic-speaking ethnic group, of Christian faith, between the Blue Nile and the Red Sea (whether Amhara, Tigrayan or Tigrinya).

Noun

Habesha (plural Habesha or Habeshas)

  1. a member of a Semitic-speaking ethnic group, of Christian faith, between the Blue Nile and the Red Sea (whether Amhara, Tigrayan or Tigrinya)
    • Portugal, the first power to circumnavigate Africa and enter the Indian Ocean, displayed primary interest in this potential ally of the West and sent a representative to Ethiopia in 1493; the Habesha, in turn, sent an envoy to Portugal in 1509 to request a coordinated attack on the Muslims.1981, American University (Washington, D.C.), Foreign Area Studies; Harold D. Nelson, Irving Kaplan (editors), Ethiopia, a Country Study page 15
    • Some of these people became known as the Habesha. Abyssinia – an ancient name for Ethiopia that is still sometimes used – is thought to have evolved from the name Habesha.1988, Dennis B. Fradin, Ethiopia page 21

Proper noun

Habesha

  1. the region of Ethiopia and Eritrea, particularly as inhabited by Semitic-speaking Christians
  2. the country of Ethiopia
    • Ethiopia ኢትዮጵያ / Habesha አበሻ. The outside world has at times referred to Ethiopia and Ethiopians as Habesha or Abyssinia and Abyssinians.1998, Negussay Ayele, Wit and Wisdom of Ethiopia page 124

Forms of Habesha

pluralHabesha
pluralHabeshas
alternative formHabeshah

Origin of Habesha

From Tigrinya ሓበሻ (ḥabäša) or Amharic ሐበሻ (ḥäbäša) (also attested in many other variants: ሀበሻ (häbäša), ሃበሻ (habäša), ሀቢሻ (häbiša), አበሻ (ʾäbäša)), from Ge'ez ሓበሠት (ḥabäśät), ሓበሥ (ḥabäś), from earlier inscriptional and unvocalized Ge'ez ሐበሠተ (ḤBŚT) as attested in at least one 4th-century inscription from the Kingdom of Aksum.

Questions about Habesha

What does Habesha mean?
Habesha means a member of a Semitic-speaking ethnic group, of Christian faith, between the Blue Nile and the Red Sea (whether Amhara, Tigrayan or Tigrinya).
What part of speech is Habesha?
Habesha can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of Habesha?
The plural of Habesha is Habesha.

Words near Habesha in the dictionary

  1. Habersham County
  2. Habershams
  3. Haberstroh
  4. Haberstrohs
  5. Habes
  6. Habesha
  7. Habeshas
  8. Habgood
  9. habib
  10. habibi
  11. habibis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Habesha (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Habesha.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/habesha. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.