island and former sultanate off East Africa, fromZengi, name of a local people, said to mean "black," + Arabicbarr "coast, shore." Related:Zanzibari.

violet-blue gemstone, 1968, said to have been named by Henry B. Platt, vice president of Tiffany & Co., because the stone was discovered in the African nation ofTanzania. With-ite (1).

word-forming element in names of countries, diseases, and flowers, from Latin and Greek-ia, noun ending, in Greek especially used in forming abstract nouns (typically of feminine gender); see-a (1). The classical suffix in its usual evolution (via French-ie) comes to Modern English as-y (as infamilia/family, also-logy,-graphy). Compare-cy.

Inparaphernalia,Mammalia,regalia, etc. it represents Latin or Greek-a (see-a (2)), plural suffix of nouns in-ium (Latin) or-ion (Greek), with formative or euphonic-i-.