wangan.
/ˈwaŋɡə/ Witchcraft, sorcery; a charm or spell; a magical object. Frequently attributive.
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the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > non-European magic (miscellaneous) > [noun] > voodoo > spell
wanga1851
1851 Daily Picayune (New Orleans) 20 July 2/6 The Voudous also threw ‘Wanga’ or spells into the complainant's yard.
1882 J. W. Buel Metropolitan Life Unveiled 532 I will make a wanga-charm to charm him with; I will make him a phantom, a ghost.
1934 B. A. Botkin in W. T. Couch Culture in South 585 Fragments of hoodoo and conjuration, whose spells,..grigris, wangas, luck balls, conjure bottles, and conjure, tricken, or goofer bags are the special province of the Negro ‘root doctor’ or ‘hoodoo man’.
1946 R. Tallant Voodoo in New Orleans (1947) 91 Another sort held gunpowder and red pepper; these were wangas to be thrown into somebody's path to cause them to get into fights.
1964 R. Severn Blood & Gold x. 102 It's a Wanga dance... Black magic... She must be a Mambo..a Voodoo priestess.
1978 W. Hjortsberg Falling Angel (1979) xxxiii. 158 Sounds like some boko's put a powerful wanga on you... A boko is a hungan [sc. Obeah priest] who is evil... Wanga's what you'd call an evil curse…a hex, a spell.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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n.1851