jumbie

plural jumbies · alternative jumbee · alternative jumby · alternative jumbi · alternative zumbi

1. CaribbeanA ghost or evil spirit.

   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.

   1979, Susan Cooper, Jethro and the Jumbie, page 5

   1 more example

   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.

   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