Reconstruction:Proto-Yoruboid/ò-sĩ̀mĩ̀lì

Etymology
The term is found across several Volta-Niger languages, whose societies and languages likely developed along the Niger river for thousands of years. See 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Perhaps distantly related to 🇨🇬. The /ɛ/ prefix in Yoruba may be a remnant of a plural form of this word, many words across dialects in Yoruba and Yoruboid languages will have an /o/ or /ɔ/ prefix, which may represent the singular form, and /e/ or /ɛ/, representing the plural form. This can be seen in other related languages including Edo and it is also used in Itsekiri. As Proto-Yoruba got rid of the use of plural and singular forms, descendant languages likely adopted either one of these forms. See vs.,  vs. , for example.

Noun

 * 1) any large body of water or river (usually referring to the Niger river)