rasta Patois words
23 entries
- Babylon The oppressive establishment — Western colonial and capitalist society, its institutions, …
- Binghi Short for Nyabinghi — the oldest and most traditional order of Rastafari, and the name of …
- Blessed A greeting, farewell and blessing all at once, wishing the favour of Jah on someone. It al…
- Chalice A water pipe used by Rastafari to smoke the herb ritually during reasoning and meditation.…
- Downpression Oppression — reworked so the word itself reflects what it describes. Rastafari reason that…
- Dreadlocks Hair grown and matted into rope-like strands, worn by Rastafari as a spiritual commitment …
- Ganja Cannabis. To Rastafari it is 'the herb', a sacrament used in reasoning and meditation to o…
- Groundation A Rastafari holy gathering marked by drumming, chanting, reasoning and dancing that can la…
- I and I A Rastafari pronoun that can mean 'I', 'me', 'we' or 'us', but always carries the idea tha…
- Iman 'I' or 'me', spoken by a Rastafari to refer to himself while affirming the divine 'I' with…
- Irie Good, pleasing, or at peace — a state of everything being right. It describes both a feeli…
- Ises Praises given to Jah — thanks, worship and honour. The word is used both for the act of pr…
- Ital Natural, pure and unprocessed — used above all for the Rastafari way of eating: food prepa…
- Iyaric The deliberately modified language of Rastafari, also called Dread Talk or I-talk — Jamaic…
- Jah God, in Rastafari belief — the living, present divine, often identified with Emperor Haile…
- Lion of Judah A central Rastafari symbol standing for Emperor Haile Selassie I, Ethiopia, and the streng…
- Livity The Rastafari concept of righteous living — the whole way a person conducts their life, in…
- One love An expression of unity and shared humanity, used both as a principle — that all people are…
- Overstand To understand — but recast so the word affirms rising rather than being beneath. Rastafari…
- Rastafari The Jamaican spiritual movement, born in the 1930s, that reveres Emperor Haile Selassie I …
- Reasoning A discussion, especially a deep or spiritual one — a session where Rastafari gather to tal…
- Trod To walk, journey or make one's way through life — used by Rastafari for the spiritual path…
- Zion The promised land of Rastafari belief — Africa, and Ethiopia in particular — understood bo…