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Tabanca, tabanka, tabankca, tobanca (n) (Grenada, Guyana, Trinidad): A painful feeling of unrequited love, from loving someone who does not love in return, especially someone who was once a lover or spouse. (No reliable derivation has been found for this word, though some possibilities have been proposed, e.g. (Kikongo tabaka ‘sell out or buy up completely’).
- It’s the same behaviour, Horn like fire, I longer, You know I nearly dead with Tabanca. (Sparrow “A Sailor Man” 1957, in Rodman 1971:217)
- Very infatuated; passionately in love. She got you boy!
Source: Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage by Richard Allsopp
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