jumbie

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Kongo zumbi (“fetish”); compare zombie.

Noun

jumbie (plural jumbies)

  1. (chiefly Caribbean) a ghost or evil spirit
    • 1882, G.H. Hawtayne, “Occasional notes: West Indian Folk-lore”, in Timehri: Being the Journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana, volume 1, page 145:
      If one wants to see “jumbies” “duppies” ghosts, all that is necessary is to put in your eye the tears from the eyes of a pie-bald horse. It is no use explaining to a negro that what he has taken to be a “jumbie” or apparition, is a tree or rock or other natural object.
    • 1979, Susan Cooper, Jethro and the Jumbie‎, page 5:
      Jethro stomped away up the hill, though the trail was supposed to be haunted by spirits of the dead called jumbies. He didn't care. He didn't believe in jumbies.

See also
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