Etymology

jab molassie

jab mo·las·sie

Today it means: A traditional character in the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival dressed as a devil, mostly naked and covered in molasses or grease and a colourful dye. Full definition →

Antillean Creole jab ← French diable
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The story

  1. French · derived frommélasse“molasses; treacle”
  2. French · derived fromdiable“devil”
  3. Antillean Creole · borrowed fromjab“devil”
  4. English todayjab molassie

Borrowed from Antillean Creole jab (“devil”) (from French diable (“devil”)) + molassie (“molasses”) (from French mélasse (“molasses; treacle”)).

Words from the same roots

Frenchdiable all →

diablejab jab

Frenchmélasse all →

molasses

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.