gris-gris

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Unknown. Compare juju (“a fetish or charm”); compare also Mande gerregery or Mandingo gregory, an amulet or curse-object.[1]

Noun

gris-gris (plural gris-gris)

  1. An African, or Afro-American, charm or talisman.
    • 1865, David Livingstone; Charles Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries:
      A horn, or rude image, is sometimes made use of as a means of preserving the medicines of defense, and is worn as an amulet. These images, horns, or other articles, called greegrees, or jeujeus, are not held sacred for a moment after the medicine is found to have lost its power […].
    • 2008, Ned Sublette, The World That Made New Orleans, Lawrence Hill Books 2009, p. 61:
      The Bambara were not Muslim, but they knew how to make gris-gris.

Translations

See also

References
  1. Jeffery Elton Anderson (2002) Conjure in African-American Society, PhD dissertation, University of Florida

French

Noun

gris-gris m (plural gris-gris)

  1. Alternative spelling of grigri (“A spell; an evil spirit”)
    • 2014, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Tram 83:
      Selon les colportages du Tram 83, toutes les femmes de la Ville-Pays se servaient sauvagement des gris-gris pour alpaguer leur proie.
      According to the rumours at Tram 83, all the women in the City-State made aggressive use of charms to ensnare their prey.
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