4. zombie: The word that was made part of the English language thanks to George Romero and John Russo’s film Night of the Living Dead, and used to represent the dead returned to life to eat human flesh. But the original meaning of zombie (or zombie) stems from Haitian voodoo, to refer to the victim of a Bokor, a voodoo witch doctor; the bokor would administer a secret powder containing several toxins, which would render the victim in a death-like state; after burial, the zombi would be exhumed, and would remain under the power of the Bokor as a memory-less slave. The Haitian word zombi originated from West Africa, and is believed to come from zumbi (‘fetish’) and nzambi (‘a god’) in the Kikongo spoken by the Bakongo and Bandundu people living in the African Congo.
5. witch: The word that is most often associated with black cats, cauldrons and pointy black hats comes from the Old English word wicce, which means ‘female magician or sorceress’, which accurately describes the arch-enemy of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. It is believed that witch comes from Proto-German wikkjaz, meaning ‘necromancer’ (one who wakes the dead).
It’s scary to think that learning English involves learning so many words that have their origins in other languages; but that is part of what makes English courses so fun!
Michael Bunyak
English Teacher at Canadian Education College, Singapore