jumbie bead
jumbie bead noun: a jequirity bean, the seed of the jequirity plant (Abrus precatorius) used in beadwork or making percussion instruments.
Noun
jumbie bead (plural jumbie beads)
- A jequirity bean, the seed of the jequirity plant (Abrus precatorius) used in beadwork or making percussion instruments.
- “Dat too much. You pick de jumbie bead by de wayside, and run piece o’ string through dem, an’ you chargin’ me four dallaz? You got to be crims-crams. You crims-crams?” I asked.2007, Sislyn Peters, Undocumented Citizen, page 179
- In the Eastern Caribbean, Abrus seeds (Jumbie beads, John Crow beads in Jamaica) are made into necklaces and bracelets to serve as protection against Jumbies and malevolent forces.2012, Robert Wyndham Nicholls, The Jumbies’ Playing Ground, page 12
- Synonyms:
- jumble-bead, jumbie bean, rosary pea
Synonyms of jumbie bead
Forms of jumbie bead
| plural | jumbie beads |
|---|
Origin of jumbie bead
From jumbie + bead. Jumbie is apparently from Kongo zumbi (“fetish, spirit”) or Kimbundu nzumbi (“god”). Compare zombie.
Questions about jumbie bead
- What does jumbie bead mean?
- Jumbie bead means a jequirity bean, the seed of the jequirity plant (Abrus precatorius) used in beadwork or making percussion instruments.
- What part of speech is jumbie bead?
- Jumbie bead is a noun.
- What is the plural of jumbie bead?
- The plural of jumbie bead is jumbie beads.
Words near jumbie bead in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jumbie bead (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “jumbie bead.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jumbie_bead. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.