# Zombies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2003, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombies/197480 "2003-08-25T09:23:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombies/197480/1 "2003-08-25T09:23:03Z")
Why are the undead - or rather a certain class of the undead kingdom - called “Zombies”? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombies/197480/2 "2003-08-25T09:29:20Z")
My hunch was that the word came from either a West African language or from one of the mixed languages of the Caribbean, and [it seems I was right](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=zombie). ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombies/197480/3 "2003-08-25T09:34:52Z")
Look it up in a dictionary! What a novel idea! :smack: I got discouraged too soon when google presented me with a billion movie and music sites. Thank you, Priceguy! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombies/197480/4 "2003-08-25T10:02:42Z")
Hold on!!! From the link, there is this definition: > [@](#): > > A tall mixed drink made of various rums, liqueur, and fruit juice. In the interest of merely fighting ignorance. 😉 what is the right recipe for that? And why was that name given to that cocktail? ---
**Author:** ![chillihead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@chillihead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chillihead)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombies/197480/5 "2003-08-25T10:37:30Z")
[Zombie recipe & history](http://hotwired.wired.com/cocktail/97/05/index4a.html) ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombies/197480/6 "2003-08-25T11:05:01Z")
Though I believe it’s out of print - get your hands on a book by Wade Davis called “The Serpent and the Rainbow”. Yes, there’s a movie by that name and it is ever so loosely associated with the book. But the book is a serious work by a scientist who at the request of a pharmaceutical company, went to Haiti to examine the zombi phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombies/197480/7 "2003-08-25T11:15:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GIGObuster \* > \*\*And why was that name given to that cocktail? \*\* Try some and wait till the next morning. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombies/197480/8 "2003-08-25T11:54:27Z")
Allan Metcalf discusses the etymology of the word _Zombie_ in his book _The World in So Many Words_. It comes from some Bantu language, probably either Kimbundu or Kongo. In English it first turned up in a history of Brazil published in 1819, which says (quoting from the OED) “Zombi, the title whereby he [chief of Brazilian natives] was called, is the name for the Deity, in the Angolan tongue… NZambi is the word for Deity.” It doesn’t cover the question about the name, but you may be interested in reading **Cecil Adams** on [How do I go about creating a zombie?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990521.html)