(Africa, East, South-Africa) A large broad-bladed knife.
I pleaded with them to lay down their arms, to take each other's hands in peace: ‘Take your guns, your knives and your pangas, and throw them into the sea!’ 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus, published 2010, page 690:
Charlie had told me what it had looked like immediately after the riots. Bodies hacked to pieces with pangas. 1978, André Brink, Rumours of Rain, Vintage, published 2000, page 73:
She turned to the small basket she was carrying and took out a panga. 1967, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat, EAEP, published 2008, page 77:
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pangas
Number=Plur
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Translations (5)
fi viidakkoveitsi (type of knife) · sw panga (type of knife) · es panga (type of knife) · fi panga (type of knife) · pl panga (type of knife)
Back-formation from the plural, from the stem of translingual Pangasius (genus name), from Bengali পাঙ্গাশ (paṅgaś, “mud- or brown-coloured fish”).
Meanings
Any of various edible freshwater fish of the genus Pangasius, native to southeast Asia, especially an iridescent shark, Pangasius hypophthalmus, now reclassified as Pangasianodon hypophthalmus.
A type of modest-sized, open, outboard-powered, fishing boat common throughout much of the developing world, including Central America, the Caribbean, parts of Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia.
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pangas
Number=Plur
lexicographic
Translations (5)
es panga (fish — see also iridescent shark) · de Pangasius (fish — see also iridescent shark) · pl panga (fish — see also iridescent shark) · fi pangasius (fish — see also iridescent shark) · fi haimonni (fish — see also iridescent shark)