Glossary

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A concreted resinous gum, with a strong alliaceous odour; used in medicine as an antispasmodic, and as flavouring in made dishes (OED).

[Derogatory] An old East-Indian man, usually bearded and poor (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A large roasted piece of round, flattened dough about 8 to 10 ins in diameter, very popular as a substitute for a loaf of bread (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

Any of several trees of Guyana and the West Indies belonging to the family Sapotacaæ (OED).

A small ship; in earlier times, a general term for all sailing vessels of small size, e.g. fishing-smacks, xebecs, pinnaces; in modern use, applied poetically or rhetorically to any sailing vessel (OED).

A square-ended, wooden boat about 15 to 20 ft long, built usually with a flat bottom but curving upwards at each end; it serves as river transport especially for farmers using paddle and pole (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

The foulness which collects in the bottom of a ship's hull, or that part on either side of the keel which has more a horizontal than a perpendicular direction, and upon which the ship would rest if aground; also the lowest internal part of the hull (OED).

Eggplant (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

Firefighter (Collins Spanish Dictionary)

An edible bean borne in a broad, flat pod about 3 ins long with a beaked tip; there are many varieties and colours the commonest of which appears to be a light green pod (also edible) with white seeds (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

Contemptible nonsense, "stuff"; trash; foolish talk or opinions (OED).

In Spanish-speaking contexts: witchcraft, sorcery, (black) magic. Also: a magic spell or charm; a curse (OED).

A white person, especially a white man (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage); likely originated in the 16th or 17th century, derived from the Ibibio and Efik word, mbakara, meaning "(white) European or master" (Lexico).

An imaginary evil spirit or creature; a bogeyman (OED).

Bastard (very informal) (Collins Spanish Dictionary)

The brown, dried, football-sized gourd of the fruit of the calabash tree, halved, scraped out and used as a container or dipper (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

Any of various plants used in the Caribbean region as culinary vegetables, esp. the amaranth, taro, and tannia or malanga. Also: a soup or stew made with these; (also figurative) a mixture, a miscellany (OED).

A boa constrictor of tropical America (OED).

A long, hard-fleshed, root-vegetable with a stiff leathery skin and white inside (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A small species of flea found in the West Indies and South America (OED).

Prick (vulgar) (Collins Spanish Dictionary)

A form of leprosy once prevalent in the West Indies (OED).

Native African bread made from maize-flour (OED).

1. Colombian dance music 2. popular Colombian dance (Collins Spanish Dictionary)

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A frog or toad of any kind (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A sack about 2 ft wide and 4 ft deep, made of brown, coarse-woven jute, used as the standard container for wholesale selling of paddy, rice, or sugar (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A large genus of euphorbiaceous plants, mostly natives of tropical regions, many of the species of which have important medical properties (OED).

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A woman whose husband is dead and who is in the enjoyment of some title or some property that has come to her from him (OED).

A root-vegetable about the size of a potato, borne in sets of side-tubers or suckers on a central corm; it has a fibrous skin, is slightly slimy when peeled, but is smooth-textured and much favoured in making soup (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

The name given to various kinds of cutaneous disease, which produce in the part affected a resemblance to an elephant's hide (OED).

A shoulder-piece; an ornament worn on the shoulder as part of a military, naval, or sometimes of a civil uniform (OED).

Feticidal; of, or relating to, or of the nature of feticide, the killing of an embryo or fetus (OED).

A portion of batter, sometimes containing slices of apple, meat, etc., fried in oil, lard, etc. (OED).

Influenza (OED).

Variant of "Gungo peas," a name for pigeon peas used in the Caribbean, including in Jamaican Creole, and likely derived from the archaic English term, "Congo peas."

Reckless, careless, heedless in action (OED).

An affected, supercilious, or condescending person; a snob (OED).

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A person (often a woman) who trades in fruit, vegetables, non-perishable food-items, and small domestic items, at some fixed place in the open, usually shared with many other such persons (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A blind or shutter made with slats which slope upwards from without, so as to exclude sun and rain, and admit air and some light (OED).

Easy and sprightly in manner; having or affecting well-bred or easy sprightliness; affecting airy self-satisfaction or unconcern (OED).

Slang address for a man, with a variety of connotations (GDS).

To poke, stab, or wound (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

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A four-wheeled carriage, the top of which, being made in two parts, may be closed or thrown open. When open, the rear part is folded back, and the front part entirely removed (OED).

A pair of eye-glasses held in the hand, usually by a long metal, ivory, or tortoiseshell handle; an opera-glass (OED).

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An earthy deposit, typically loose and unconsolidated and consisting chiefly of clay mixed with calcium carbonate, formed in prehistoric seas and lakes and long used to improve the texture of sandy or light soil (OED).

A parasitic worm which infests the stomach or intestines of humans and other mammals (OED).

A type of rural folk-music with a marked rhythm that stimulates hip-swinging dancing; it is accompanied by a song in which one or two short, spicy verses related to some event are continually repeated; its music is now kept alive mostly by organized competitions (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A face, especially an unattractive one (OED).

A small riding-horse or pony; (colloquial) a horse, now especially an old or feeble one (OED).

A set or system of secret beliefs in the use of supernatural forces to attain or defend against evil ends; it is African in origin and varies greatly in kind, requirements, and practice, ranging from the simple, such as the use of items like oils, herbs, bones, grave-dirt and fresh animal blood, to the criminal (though rare), such as the sacrifice of a child's life; it is carried on or worked by hidden practitioners in order to gain for their clients success, protection, or cures for mysterious illnesses, as well as cause trouble for, or the death of an enemy (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

(Chiefly derogatory or depreciative) A white person (OED).

Cop; police officer (Collins Spanish Dictionary)

(A term used by many for) Jamaican Creole; sometimes loosely applied to Anglophone Caribbean Creoles in general (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A minor fault or sin; a trivial offense (OED).

Term for several types of bird, especially the lapwing, a ground-nesting bird similar to the plover (OED).

An unskilled farmworker or day labourer under the charge of a foreman or overseer; a person of little or no importance; a lowly or menial person, a drudge; a lackey, underling (OED).

A young child of Black (or East Indian) parentage; [by extension] any young child (especially a poor one) (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A baked pudding made chiefly of grated sweet-potato (with currants and sometimes spice), but also of cornmeal (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A strong barrier in the form of a grating of wooden or iron bars, usually suspended by chains above the gateway of a fortress, a fortified town, etc., and able to secure the entrance quickly by being released to slide down vertical grooves in the sides of the gateway (OED).

A public park or other open space as a fashionable place to meet or walk (OED).

Consisting of or relating to farms or lands; rural, agrarian (OED).

A large grey fish said to be exactly like a large mullet; it is much prized for the richness of its flesh (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A kind of unleavened bread made of flour, salt, and water, the dough being rolled flat into thin discs, each baked separately on a baking-iron; it is then used to wrap a serving of curry. Roti is an Indian food which today forms part of the normal diet of the entire population. It is eaten with great relish by everyone (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

Holy, sacred, used in various French oaths (OED).

A yellowish-brown reptile of the lizard family, about 2 ft long, with rugged, black bands spaced along its whole body and dark spots on the legs; it feeds on chickens, young birds, and eggs; its flesh is eaten by some people (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A russet-brown, thin-skinned, roundish fruit about 3 ins long, with a sweet, yellowish-brown, succulent pulp around a few shiny, black seeds; it is borne on a tall, bushy tree with leathery leaves (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A shrub of the genus Cassia, native in tropical regions, bearing yellow flowers and flat greenish pods (OED).

A woollen fabric, the nature of which has probably differed considerably at different periods. Before the 16th cent. it is mentioned chiefly as material for hangings, bed-covers, and the like; afterwards it is often referred to as worn by the poorer classes (both men and women), perhaps rather on account of its durability than of its price, which seems not to have been extremely low. The name now denotes a very durable twilled cloth of worsted, or with the warp of worsted and the woof of wool, extensively used for clothing and for other purposes (OED).

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One of a series of copper pans used in former times to boil sugar-cane juice before it was transferred to a boiler to be crystallized into sugar (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

A tuber about 4 to 4 ins long, of a rather coarse, pinkish (some varieties yellowish) texture, usually boiled and sliced; the plant is distinguished by its large arrowhead-shaped leaves, with prominent veins, their tall stalks rising straight out of the ground (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

1. The largest marble shot by children in a game of pitching marbles. 2. A seed used by boys in place of a marble (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

To tramp, trudge (OED).

A light, low, four-wheeled carriage having a collapsible hood, with seats (usually) for two persons and an elevated seat in front for the driver (OED).

Considered, especially in Jamaica, as a distinctive variety of yam (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage).

Variant of "jigaboo," U.S. slang for a black person, can be derogatory depending on context (GDS).