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Where does the word "anansi" come from? It comes from Akan (Twi) ananse, and was adopted directly into English (1700s-1800s).
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Where does the word "anansi" come from? It comes from Akan (Twi) ananse, and was adopted directly into English (1700s-1800s).
Anansi’s story begins in Akan (Twi): ananse meant “spider.” The Twi word simply means "spider", first recorded around 1700-1710 as the name of the trickster figure. It reached English by 1700s-1800s as Anansi. Carried to the Caribbean with enslaved Akan people and kept as the name of the spider trickster in Jamaican and wider English folklore. Today, anansi means the cunning spider trickster of West African and Caribbean folktales, and by extension a name for such a trickster figure.
- Stage 1 · Akan (Twi) · 1700s ananse "spider", the Twi word simply means "spider", first recorded around 1700-1710 as the name of the trickster figure.
- Stage 2 · English · 1700s-1800s Anansi "a cunning spider trickster figure of folktales", carried to the Caribbean with enslaved Akan people and kept as the name of the spider trickster in Jamaican and wider English folklore.