voodoo

Etymology

It is borrowed from French vaudou, also vaudoux,^[2] or in its Louisiana form voudou,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} from Fon vodun (“god, deity”),^[2][5][3] compare Ewe vodu (“spirit, tutelary deity, demon”).^[3][4][6][8] Barnhart and Dictionary.com name only a West African language;^[6][9] Hoad gives the word as from Dahomey,^[10] and Partridge as found in both Fon and Ewe, meaning a good or bad spirit, hence a fetish.^[8] In French the word is recorded from 1797, for a powerful supernatural being and a dance that seems to have been religious, then from 1846 for the religion.^[2][5] Weekley, doubtfully, suggested a link with French vaudois, since Catholic teachers had represented the Waldensian heretics as devil-worshippers.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The religion practised in Haiti and the southern United States: 1846, in the New-York Daily Tribune.^[2] Etymonline and the OED cite an earlier passage of 1820, from the Louisiana Gazette, on the worship of an African deity called Vaudoo, but the OED is unsure whether it names the god or the religion.^[5][2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1850.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The religion combines elements of Roman Catholic ritual with African religion and magic; its followers believe in one supreme God and in lesser spirits that protect and guide them.^[12][2] Because the curse side of the practice was popularised in books and films, the word came to suggest evil magic,^[12] so that from 1897 it was used figuratively of anything thought to rest on magic or superstition.^[2] A believer or practitioner was a voodoo from 1850,^[2] and a spell or curse from 1902, after the earlier hoodoo;^[2] to put a voodoo on someone is recorded from 1898.^[2] The verb, to put a curse on, dates from 1866 in the OED and 1880 in Merriam-Webster and Etymonline,^[2][4][5] and the adjective from 1868.^[4] Merriam-Webster also has an adjective sense, based on highly unlikely assumptions, as in voodoo economics.^[4]

Timeline

• 1820 – Vaudoo, possibly the name of a deity, in New Orleans.^[5][2]
• 1846 – the religion.^[2]
• 1850 – a practitioner of voodoo.^[2]
• 1866 – verb, to put a spell on.^[2]
• 1868 – adjective.^[4]
• 1897 – figurative, practices likened to voodoo.^[2]
• 1902 – a spell or curse.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A religion practised chiefly in Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean and in the southern United States, combining Roman Catholic ritual with African religious practices, magic and spirit possession.^[13][4][2]
2. A person who practises voodoo; a sorcerer.^[13][4][2]
3. A magic spell or curse; a jinx: Her rivals joked that someone had put a voodoo on her car.^[4][2]
4. An object believed to carry such a spell; a charm or fetish.^[13][4]
5. Activity or beliefs thought to rest on magic or superstition rather than reason.^[2]

Verb

1. To put a spell on someone by voodoo; to bewitch or hex.^[4][2]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or practising voodoo.^[13][4]
2. Based on very unlikely assumptions; wholly unrealistic, as in voodoo economics.^[4]

Word family

• voodooism

Related words

• hoodoo
• vodun

Usage notes

The spelling vodun is found in English since 1874,^[6] and Barnhart thinks it was later reborrowed from Haitian Creole vodou.^[6] Etymonline says the anthropologist M. J. Herskovits popularised vodun for the religion in the 1930s, to free it from the negative and superstitious associations of voodoo.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins