Word.ws English Dictionary

orpeko

orpeko noun: a form of spirit possession or spiritual sickness among Maasai people, especially women.

Noun

orpeko (uncountable)

  1. (Africa, East) A form of spirit possession or spiritual sickness among Maasai people, especially women.
    • It turned out that the only sure-fire permanent cure for orpeko was Christian baptism.2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 965
    • Orpeko is vividly perceived by Maasai men and women as an outside force that has entered and disrupted their lives.2001, Dorothy L. Hodgson, Once Intrepid Warriors, page 260

Origin of orpeko

Borrowed from Maasai orpeka, from Swahili upepo (“spirit, wind”), from Proto-Bantu [Term?].

Questions about orpeko

What does orpeko mean?
Orpeko means a form of spirit possession or spiritual sickness among Maasai people, especially women.
What part of speech is orpeko?
Orpeko is a noun.

Words near orpeko in the dictionary

  1. Orpah
  2. orpailleur
  3. orpailleurs
  4. orped
  5. orpedly
  6. orpeko
  7. orphaline
  8. orphan
  9. orphan acronym
  10. orphan acronyms
  11. orphan asylum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: orpeko (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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