I've mentioned this in the past, but one of my favorite etymologies is for a swahili word, kipalafuti. It means roundabout/rotary/traffic circle, depending where your English resides.
It comes from the time when much of East Africa was under British hegemony, and the road signs at rotaries said "Keep Left" (driving on the wrong side, ya know?). Swahili speakers are remarkable at their incorporation of English words, and Swahili words always end in a vowel, so with a little mucking about with the text of the sign, they arrived at kipalufuti.
While we're on the subject, another favorite is the swahili word for a common form of transit in East Africa - the pickup truck with metal poles and crossbars mounted on the back for passengers to hang on to as they stand in the bed of the truck. Such a truck is known as a "matatu," the Swahili for "three" - based on the idea that, whatever I might think in considering whether to board, there's always room for three more people.
