- zombie[zombie 词源字典]
- zombie: [19] Zombie was originally the name of a snake-god in the voodoo cult of West Africa, and later of the Caribbean, and it comes from a West African language (it is related to Kongo nzambi ‘god’ and zumbi ‘fetish’). It was later applied to a reanimated corpse in the voodoo cult, and a ghoulish sense of humour transferred the English word in the 1930s to a ‘catatonically slow-witted person’.
[zombie etymology, zombie origin, 英语词源] - re-animate (v.)
- also reanimate, 1610s, in spiritual and physical sense, from re- "back, again" + animate (v.) "to endow with life." Related: Reanimated; reanimating.
- zombie (n.)
- 1871, of West African origin (compare Kikongo zumbi "fetish;" Kimbundu nzambi "god"), originally the name of a snake god, later with meaning "reanimated corpse" in voodoo cult. But perhaps also from Louisiana creole word meaning "phantom, ghost," from Spanish sombra "shade, ghost." Sense "slow-witted person" is recorded from 1936.