Nyam

Meaning

To eat — especially to eat heartily, hungrily, or greedily. More vivid and earthy than the neutral English 'eat', 'nyam' carries the sense of real relish and appetite, often of fast, hungry, tuck-in eating: 'nyam yuh food' is get stuck into your food. One of the deepest African survivals in the language (compare Wolof and Fula roots meaning 'to eat'), it is among the most everyday and expressive words in Patois, running through countless phrases and proverbs about food and hunger.

Examples

• Di pickney dem a nyam off all a di food.

  The children are eating up all of the food.

  'a nyam' uses the continuous marker 'a'; 'off' intensifies to mean finishing it all.

• Mi hungry, mi waan nyam sinting.

  I'm hungry, I want to eat something.

  Everyday casual use for wanting food.

• Nuh nyam so fas, yuh a go choke.

  Don't eat so fast, you're going to choke.

  Highlights the greedy or hasty connotation.

Origin

From West African languages, likely Wolof or Fula 'nyam' meaning to eat/food, retained through the enslaved population; cognate forms appear across West African and Caribbean creoles.

How it’s used

Widely used and understood at all levels of society. Not vulgar, but informal; you would not use it in very formal writing. The West African root makes it one of the clearest African survivals in the language.