This is a word in Ugandan English that expresses "a variety of emotions, such as surprise, wonder, sympathy, etc."
Based on the examples given, it seems about like "oh, dear":
2007 Africa News: New Vision (Uganda) (Nexis) 17 Nov. It is crucial to fake accents properly, not just because your fake accents are enormously irritating and they leave us torn between pity (bambi, the poor chap is lacking in mental capacity) but also because of the way it impacts on your job of presenting.
2015 Observer (Kampala, Uganda) (Nexis) 11 Nov. When I was in P6, my mum got an accident... Oh bambi your mother!.. She actually got a permanent disability.
2020 @Adakarma4 10 Sept. in twitter.com (accessed 29 Oct. 2020) [In response to Life is becoming a mess.] Bambi..poor thing.
Interesting to see "twitter.com" — and we see it in both of the 2 examples of "bambi" used as an adverb "to add polite emphasis or urgency":
2012 @Shoughan 18 Apr. in twitter.com (accessed 29 Oct. 2020) Bambi come back to Uganda.
2020 @MaestaFilms 19 Jan. in twitter.com (accessed 29 Oct. 2020) Let's give it some likes bambi [‘folded hands’ emoji].
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9 comments:
"Bambi" is "Oh *deer*"? Little on the nose don't you think? Are we sure this is even Ugandan and not someone putting us on?
James said...
"Bambi" is "Oh *deer*"?
i am fawn of this sort of word play
A case of Gretchen trying to make fetch happen.
Still waiting for "habibi" to catch on.
Can we make that happen first?
Based on the examples given, it seems about like "oh, dear"
In American, "fuck" or "oh, fuck" is often an acceptable replacement.
But probably not with "bambi your mother."
Bambina is a word in Italian English that means [female] "baby."
Bambino is the Italian masculine form for "child". The feminine is bambina. The plural forms are bambinos in English and bambini in Italian.
h/t Wiki
Gender semantics of human sexes.
DAYZ is a PVP/zombie game where all new players were called "Bambi", indicating they know little, die easily and need help to merely survive. I never hear that anymore. Instead I just hear "freshie" which denote the just reborn and weaponless.
What, then, to make of Bambi Molesters?
https://youtu.be/CJKr-Btq8zI
Ugandan English is the official language of Uganda. Fortunately, the official status follows usage, not the other way around. English speakers from anywhere in the world may find conversation easy there.
"Yambo means hello." I originally learned that from The Nun's Story, sequence set in the (then) Belgian Congo. The language is Swahili, and the word bambi looks as if of Swahili origin too, but I can't find it in the pocket-size Swahili dictionary available to me, or in a brief online search.
Attempting to trace the sources of localized special vocabulary -- well it fascinates me. Swahili is known and spoken to some extent among Ugandans (the Congo is right next door); for decades they've been inching towards making it the second official language. There are other possibilities.
Luganda is the prevalent native Ugandan language, among about seventy others. Any one of them might be the source for bambi, although it doesn't resemble the (admittedly few) other Luganda words I know: words can get altered when borrowed from one language to another.
Then too, bambi might be a non-lexical sound become a word by default, like meh, eheu, or oy.
And I learned that "Jambo means hello." from Gomez Addams.
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