kiniun

Etymology
Compare with 🇨🇬. It is not related to almost any Volta-Niger roots for lion, and cognates do not exist in other Proto-Edekiri or Proto-Yoruba descended languages spoken east of the Yoruba homeland, such as Itsekiri, Olukumi, or Igala. Its relation to 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, as well as the significance of the "lion" in Gbe-kingdoms like Dahomey, but a lack of significance of the lion in Yorubaland because of its absence in the tropical forests of most of Yorubaland (words for "lion" do not exist in many Niger-delta languages, as well as in Ayere or Ukaan), may explain why a native root did not persist. Thus, perhaps this comes from any of the various Gbe-roots, which was then borrowed and spread east across the forest among Yoruba-dialects, and then ending at the savanna (where native or locally derived terms for lion would exist).

See, while this term is shared between many Yoruba dialects, but a single form cannot be formally reconstructed to the level of Proto-Yoruboid because of linguistic considerations.

Noun

 * 1) lion