zumbi

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See also: Zumbi

English

Noun

zumbi (plural zumbis)

  1. Alternative form of jumbie (“a ghost or spirit”)
  2. (uncommon) Alternative form of zombie
    • 1876, R.F. Burton, Two Trips to Gorilla Land, page 124:
      and thus there was no danger of the Zumbi, or ghost killing men by reapparition.
    • 1882, Hermenegildo Capelo and Roberto Ivens, From Benguella to the Territory of Yacca, page 26:
      as a libation, it would appear, to the zumbi or n’zumbi of the other world, by and with whom they always deem themselves surrounded and connected.
    • 2021, Kalle Kananoja, Healing Knowledge in Atlantic Africa, page 41:
      The patients duly offered a banquet to appease the zumbi, but in Modena’s view the only purpose of the ritual was to invoke the demon.

Usage notes

  • This particular spelling is used chiefly in West and Southwest African contexts, referring to the ghost or spirit of a deceased person, especially a malevolent one.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Kimbundu nzumbi (“ghost”, “spirit”) or Kimbundu nzambi (“god”).

Noun

zumbi m (plural zumbis)

  1. (Brazil, historical) the leader of a quilombo (runaway slave settlement)
  2. Zumbi dos Palmares
Synonyms

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English zombie, with spelling influenced by Etymology 1.

Noun

zumbi m or f by sense (plural zumbis)

  1. (Brazil, fiction) zombie (the undead)
  2. (Brazil, voodoo) zombie (person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces)
  3. (Brazil, figurative) zombie (human being in a state of extreme mental exhaustion)
Synonyms
Derived terms

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

zumbi

  1. inflection of zumbir:
    1. first-person singular preterite indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative
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