mumbo jumbo
Appearance
See also: mumbo-jumbo
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Probably from Mandinka maamajomboo (“mask; masked dancer”); or perhaps from /l/-vocalization in the words "mumble" and "jumble".
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /mʌmbəʊˈdʒʌmbəʊ/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ʌmbəʊ
Noun
[edit]mumbo jumbo (countable and uncountable, plural mumbo jumbos)
- (historical) A deity or other supernatural being said to have been worshipped by certain West African peoples; an idol.
- 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Symbols”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 155:
- So likewise a day comes when the Runic Thor, with his Eddas, must withdraw into dimness; and many an African Mumbo-Jumbo and Indian Pawpaw be utterly abolished.
- (religion) Any object of superstition; religious words and/or actions which are seen as superstitious or fraudulent.
- Rev. Quack's healing services are little more than mumbo jumbo.
- 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 91:
- "And what have you got to say? Another lot of mumbo-jumbo like your learned associates over there?"
- 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 179:
- What is going on in all this religious mumbo-jumbo that is so foreign to the positivism of contemporary scholarship is a reenactment of the history of the soul before the beginning of terrestrial evolution.
- (by extension) Any confusing or meaningless speech; nonsense, gibberish.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense
- Football lingo is mumbo jumbo to me.
- 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 89:
- He escaped from that experience confounded, horrified, and conscious of degradation. Those infernal bandogs of the law had treated him as a piece of insensate property to their drivelling mumbo-jumbo, as if mere contact with it had robbed him of all rights to the dignity and integrity of his own ego.
- 1985, Robert Hayden, “Frederick Douglass”, in Collected Poems:
- When it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole, / Reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more / Than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
- 2020 February 3, Rowena Mason, “Boris Johnson hints at allowing GM food imports from US”, in The Guardian[1]:
- He also said Britain would be “governed by science, not mumbo-jumbo” when looking at whether imported food was acceptable for consumption in the UK.
Translations
[edit]meaningless speech
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Further reading
[edit]- “mumbo jumbo”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “mumbo jumbo”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Mandinka
- English terms derived from Mandinka
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ʌmbəʊ
- Rhymes:English/ʌmbəʊ/4 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English multiword terms
- English terms with historical senses
- English terms with quotations
- en:Religion
- English terms with usage examples
- English reduplications