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Archiver > GEN-AFRICAN > 1997-04 > 0861803559


From: Angus Macdonald <>
Subject: Re: Meaning PRIMUS and MINGO?
Date: 23 Apr 1997 06:52:39 -0700
References: <5j2l54$m4g@bl-5.rootsweb.com> <5j80gh$ctn@bl-5.rootsweb.com>
In-Reply-To: <5j80gh$ctn@bl-5.rootsweb.com>


On 18 Apr 1997, Elize Hough wrote:

> wrote:

> > I am researching two African American families in Massachusetts.
> > I can trace one family back to a male slave *Primus* 1720s;
> > the other family can be traced to a male slave *Mingo* 1740s.
> > Do they names have any particular significance? Do they indicated
> > a region of Africa? Do they have any specific meaning or
> > definition? I am trying to enrich the stories of these
> > families with general background information.
> >
> > Thanks. Martha
> In South Afica a Primus as a type of parrafin stove used for cooking.
> It is not a common name for a person unless used as a nickname. A
> parrifin stove or primus is commonly used over the whole of Africa.
> Hope this helps.

No, it won't have anything to do with the word (trademark) primus (as in
primus stoves, which have been around - not just in South Africa - since
the early 1900s) but will probably be the word primus = Latin for first
(therefore, meaning, most likely, "the first, or senior, slave" in the
family).

However, what the "Mingo" means, I don't know, unless it is a personal
name, or nickname, in part of Africa? Or could it be the slave's own name
for himself/herself, deriving from a mispronunciation of a name or word.
(Could it, for instance, have come from the Spanish domingo = Sunday?)
Just one of many possibilities, I'm sure!

Regards

Angus Macdonald

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