ethnic group in Eritrea; The Tigrinya people (Tigrinya: ትግርኛ, romanized: Təgrəñña, pronounced [tɨɡrɨɲːä] ⓘ), also known as the Biher-Tigrinya (ብሄረ ትግርኛ, bəherä Təgrəñña) or Kebessa, are an ethnic group indigenous to Eritrea. They speak the Tigrinya language. There also exists a sizable Tigrinya community in the diaspora.
One view believes that the name comes from the word tägärät (ተገረት), meaning "she ascended". The word tägäru (ተገሩ) "they ascended" describes the ascension of the earliest indigenous people to the mountainous highlands of Eritrea as the plateau's first settlers. The Tigrinya tribe were first mentioned around the 8th to 10th centuries, in which period manuscripts preserving the inscriptions of Cosmas Indicopleustes (fl. 6th century) contain notes on his writings including the mention of a tribe called Tigretes.
The word kebessa (in the form khebsi) has also been found in Ancient Egyptian inscriptions in reference to puntites, however concentrating later on during the Ptolemaic period, the word khebsi roughly translates to "those who cut or detach the incense from the tree". (Wikipedia 2025)