jumbie

• jumbee, jumby, jumbi, zumbi

From Kongo zumbi (“fetish”). Doublet of zombie.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʒʌmbi/

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jumbie (plural jumbies)

1. (chiefly Caribbean) A ghost or evil spirit.

   Coordinate terms: duppy; see also Thesaurus:ghost

   • 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.