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| bearer (a) | |
| maromita | ~ [maro-mita: many passing or crossing to and fro] native coolies or bearers of burden ~ a servant; a bearer of a burden [a corruption of the French marmiton, a scullion] ~ [French marmiton], a laborer servant ~ Literally "those who ford [streams] frequently". People who carried goods and travellers in litters or open palankeens between the east coast and the capital. Doing so, they had to ford (mita rano) many (maro) streams and rivers that flowed into the sea along the coast. Many dictionaries state that the Malagasy word "maromita" comes from the French word "marmite", and translate it as scullion, cook, house servant. This is an error started in the Richardson dictionary of 1885 and the Albinac and Malzac dictionary of 1888, and propagated ever since. |
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