Etymograph

English

sunga

Sunga comes from Portuguese sunga ‘sunga, swim briefs, speedos’, and goes back to Kimbundu sunga.

  1. Kimbundumodernsunga1
  2. Portuguesec. 1500–presentsunga2‘sunga, swim briefs, speedos’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2021sunga2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Portuguese sunga
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English sunga
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2021, Aliénor Salmon: “I suspiciously open one eye and there's Edson, kneeling…”.

Lineage

  1. KimbundumodernsungaWiktionary, Portuguese sunga
  2. Portuguesec. 1500–presentsungaWiktionary, English sunga‘sunga, swim briefs, speedos’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2021sungaWiktionary, English sunga. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2021, Aliénor Salmon: “I suspiciously open one eye and there's Edson, kneeling…”

Every English word from Kimbundu sunga

Today it means

noun A narrow, rectangular men's swimsuit to cover the genitals and posterior, popular in Brazil.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sunga”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Portuguese sunga. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Kimbundu sunga / sunga

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