Yorùbá glossary

07The glossary

One word at a time, as the pieces publish.

The Ìtùnú Edit

Yorùbá at home

The words that keep turning up across the Edit, kept in one place. Each one is here because a piece was written about it, and each links back to that piece.

Ìtùrá

To relax the body.

It names the house whose scents are built for the moment you arrive somewhere and put the day down.

The word is Ìtùrá
Orúkọ rere sàn ju wúrà àti fàdákà lọ

A good name is more precious than silver and gold.

A proverb, and the turn the piece rests on: a name is not a gift someone hands you and can withhold. It is something you keep proving true, whether or not anyone says it correctly.

The River and Her Name