zombien.
/ˈzɒmbi/, U.S. /ˈzɑmbi/, Caribbean English /ˈzɑmbi/ I. The ghost or spirit of a dead person; a reanimated corpse, or a being likened to or resembling one.
1. In parts of the Caribbean (esp. Haiti) and the southern United States: the ghost or spirit of a dead person, esp. a malevolent one. Cf. zumbi n., jumbie n., duppy n. Now rare.In early use frequently in French contexts, esp. in translations from French.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [noun]
soulOE
huea1000
ghostOE
fantasyc1325
spiritc1350
phantomc1384
phantasmc1430
haunterc1440
shadowa1464
appearance1488
wraith1513
hag1538
spoorn1584
vizarda1591
life-in-death1593
phantasma1598
umbra1601
larve1603
spectre1605
spectrum1611
apparitiona1616
shadea1616
shapea1616
showa1616
idolum1619
larva1651
white hat?1693
zumbi1704
jumbie1764
duppy1774
waff1777
zombie1788
Wild Huntsman1796
spook1801
ghostie1810
hantua1811
preta1811
bodach1814
revenant1823
death-fetch1826
sowlth1829
haunt1843
night-bat1847
spectrality1850
thivish1852
beastie1867
ghost soul1869
barrow-wight1891
resurrect1892
waft1897
churel1901
comeback1908
1788 Universal Mag. Sept. 117/1 Some supposed that the Zombies had carried him off [Fr. que les Zombis l'avoient enlevé]. [footnote] The Zombies make a great figure in the superstition of the Negroes. Like the Larvæ of the antients, they are supposed to be the spirits of dead wicked men, that are permitted to wander, and torment the living.
1838 La Belle Assemblée Apr. 351/2 In distinguishing the voice of a human being his terror of zombies was dissipated.
1924 N.Y. Times 6 Jan. (Book Review section) 21/5 A sudden gust of horror as the (demon) zombi passes.
1979 J. Rhys Smile Please 30 Zombies were black shapeless things. They could get through a locked door and you heard them walking up to your bed. You didn't see them, you felt their hairy hands round your throat.
2.
a. Esp. in parts of the Caribbean (esp. Haiti) and the southern United States: a soulless corpse said to have been revived by witchcraft.The concept of the zombie was popularized by U.S. writer and explorer W. B. Seabrook (1884–1945), particularly in the book The Magic Island (1929), and slightly later by the film White Zombie (1932), which was based on this book.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > malignant monster > [noun] > zombie
carrionc1460
zombie1928
ogbanje1976
1928 W. B. Seabrook in Sunday State Jrnl. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 25 Mar. iii. 1 c/2 (caption) A ‘Zombie’—perhaps a real one; perhaps just a demented old man—believed by Haitian peasants to have been exhumed after death, revivified by sorcery and put to work as a slave in the fields.
1966 G. Greene Comedians i. iv. 104 Luckily no one dared move on the roads at night; it was the hour when only zombies worked or else the Tontons Macoute.
1984 Times 26 Jan. 12/6 A zombie, as every schoolboy knows, is a person who has been killed and raised from the dead by sinister voodoo priests called bocors.
2010 K. L. Glover Haiti Unbound ii. ii. 59 The zombie in Haiti is a victim—deserving of pity more than fear. Without any recollection of its past or hope for the future, the zombie exists only in the present of its exploitation.
b. In horror films, books, etc.: a reanimated corpse, typically portrayed as a creature capable of movement but not rational thought, with an insatiable hunger for human flesh or brains. Also occasionally in extended use with reference to similar mindless creatures.Now the most common sense.
ΚΠ
1970 Monthly Film Bull. Jan. 8/2 The countryside is overrun with these murderous zombies—evidently corpses revived by radiation from a rocket abortively shot to Venus.
1984 T. C. Boyle Budding Prospects (1985) i. i. 4 Zombies in white-face drifted across the screen, masticating bratwurstlike strings of human intestine.
1996 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 14 June e3 The zombies can only by killed by disgusting, brain-spattering blows to the head.
2011 FourFourTwo Oct. 28/4 What's that lurking in the shadows? A ghoul? A goblin? A flesh-eating zombie?
3.
a. figurative. colloquial. A dull, apathetic, unresponsive, or unthinkingly acquiescent person. Also as a general term of disparagement.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupid, foolish, or inadequate person > stupid person, dolt, blockhead > [noun]
asseOE
sotc1000
beastc1225
long-ear?a1300
stock1303
buzzard1377
mis-feelinga1382
dasarta1400
stonea1400
dasiberd14..
dottlec1400
doddypoll1401
dastardc1440
dotterel1440
dullardc1440
wantwit1449
jobardc1475
nollc1475
assheada1500
mulea1500
dull-pate15..
peak1509
dulbert?a1513
doddy-patec1525
noddypolla1529
hammer-head1532
dull-head?1534
capon1542
dolt1543
blockhead1549
cod's head1549
mome1550
grout-head1551
gander1553
skit-brains?1553
blocka1556
calfa1556
tomfool1565
dunce1567
druggard1569
cobble1570
dummel1570
Essex calf1573
jolthead1573
hardhead1576
beetle-head1577
dor-head1577
groutnoll1578
grosshead1580
thickskin1582
noddyship?1589
jobbernowl1592
beetle-brain1593
Dorbel1593
oatmeal-groat1594
loggerhead1595
block-pate1598
cittern-head1598
noddypoop1598
dorbellist1599
numps1599
dor1601
stump1602
ram-head1605
look-like-a-goose1606
ruff1606
clod1607
turf1607
asinego1609
clot-poll1609
doddiea1611
druggle1611
duncecomb1612
ox-head1613
clod-polla1616
dulman1615
jolterhead1620
bullhead1624
dunderwhelpa1625
dunderhead1630
macaroona1631
clod-patea1635
clota1637
dildo1638
clot-pate1640
stupid1640
clod-head1644
stub1644
simpletonian1652
bottle-head1654
Bœotiana1657
vappe1657
lackwit1668
cudden1673
plant-animal1673
dolt-head1679
cabbage head1682
put1688
a piece of wood1691
ouphe1694
dunderpate1697
numbskull1697
leather-head1699
nocky1699
Tom Cony1699
mopus1700
bluff-head1703
clod skull1707
dunny1709
dowf1722
stupe1722
gamphrel1729
gobbin?1746
duncehead1749
half-wit1755
thick-skull1755
jackass1756
woollen-head1756
numbhead1757
beef-head1775
granny1776
stupid-head1792
stunpolla1794
timber-head1794
wether heada1796
dummy1796
noghead1800
staumrel1802
muttonhead1803
num1807
dummkopf1809
tumphya1813
cod's head and shoulders1820
stoopid1823
thick-head1824
gype1825
stob1825
stookiea1828
woodenhead1831
ning-nong1832
log-head1834
fat-head1835
dunderheadism1836
turnip1837
mudhead1838
donkey1840
stupex1843
cabbage1844
morepork1845
lubber-head1847
slowpoke1847
stupiditarian1850
pudding-head1851
cod's head and shoulders1852
putty head1853
moke1855
mullet-head1855
pothead1855
mug1857
thick1857
boodle1862
meathead1863
missing link1863
half-baked1866
lunk1867
turnip-head1869
rummy1872
pumpkin-head1876
tattie1879
chump1883
dully1883
cretin1884
lunkhead1884
mopstick1886
dumbhead1887
peanut head1891
pie-face1891
doughbakea1895
butt-head1896
pinhead1896
cheesehead1900
nyamps1900
box head1902
bonehead1903
chickenhead1903
thickwit1904
cluck1906
boob1907
John1908
mooch1910
nitwit1910
dikkop1913
goop1914
goofus1916
rumdum1916
bone dome1917
moron1917
oik1917
jabroni1919
dumb-bell1920
knob1920
goon1921
dimwit1922
ivory dome1923
stone jug1923
dingleberry1924
gimp1924
bird brain1926
jughead1926
cloth-head1927
dumb1928
gazook1928
mouldwarp1928
ding-dong1929
stupido1929
mook1930
sparrow-brain1930
knobhead1931
dip1932
drip1932
epsilon1932
bohunkus1933
Nimrod1933
dumbass1934
zombie1936
pea-brain1938
knot-head1940
schlump1941
jarhead1942
Joe Soap1943
knuckle-head1944
nong1944
lame-brain1945
gobshite1946
rock-head1947
potato head1948
jerko1949
turkey1951
momo1953
poop-head1955
a right one1958
bam1959
nong-nong1959
dickhead1960
dumbo1960
Herbert1960
lamer1961
bampot1962
dipshit1963
bamstick1965
doofus1965
dick1966
pillock1967
zipperhead1967
dipstick1968
thickie1968
poephol1969
yo-yo1970
doof1971
cockhead1972
nully1973
thicko1976
wazzock1976
motorhead1979
mouth-breather1979
no-brainer1979
jerkwad1980
woodentop1981
dickwad1983
dough ball1983
dickweed1984
bawheid1985
numpty1985
jerkweed1988
dick-sucker1989
knob-end1989
Muppet1989
dingus1997
dicksack1999
eight ball-
the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > inferior person > [noun] > as abused
warlockOE
swinec1175
beastc1225
wolf's-fista1300
avetrolc1300
congeonc1300
dirtc1300
slimec1315
snipec1325
lurdanc1330
misbegetc1330
sorrowa1350
shrew1362
jordan1377
wirlingc1390
frog?a1400
warianglea1400
wretcha1400
horcop14..
turdc1400
callet1415
lotterela1450
paddock?a1475
souter1478
chuff?a1500
langbain?c1500
cockatrice1508
sow1508
spink1508
wilrone1508
rook?a1513
streaker?a1513
dirt-dauber?1518
marmoset1523
babiona1529
poll-hatcheta1529
bear-wolf1542
misbegotten1546
pig1546
excrement1561
mamzer1562
chuff-cat1563
varlet1566
toada1568
mandrake1568
spider1568
rat1571
bull-beef1573
mole-catcher1573
suppository1573
curtal1578
spider-catcher1579
mongrela1585
roita1585
stickdirta1585
dogfish1589
Poor John1589
dog's facec1590
tar-boxa1592
baboon1592
pot-hunter1592
venom1592
porcupine1594
lick-fingers1595
mouldychaps1595
tripe1595
conundrum1596
fat-guts1598
thornback1599
land-rat1600
midriff1600
stinkardc1600
Tartar1600
tumbril1601
lobster1602
pilcher1602
windfucker?1602
stinker1607
hog rubber1611
shad1612
splay-foot1612
tim1612
whit1612
verdugo1616
renegado1622
fish-facea1625
flea-trapa1625
hound's head1633
mulligrub1633
nightmare1633
toad's-guts1634
bitch-baby1638
shagamuffin1642
shit-breech1648
shitabed1653
snite1653
pissabed1672
bastard1675
swab1687
tar-barrel1695
runt1699
fat-face1740
shit-sack1769
vagabond1842
shick-shack1847
soor1848
b1851
stink-pot1854
molie1871
pig-dog1871
schweinhund1871
wind-sucker1880
fucker1893
cocksucker1894
wart1896
so-and-so1897
swine-hound1899
motherfucker1918
S.O.B.1918
twat1922
mong1926
mucker1929
basket1936
cowson1936
zombie1936
meatball1937
shower1943
chickenshit1945
mugger1945
motherferyer1946
hooer1952
morpion1954
mother1955
mother-raper1959
louser1960
effer1961
salaud1962
gunk1964
scunge1967
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [noun] > want of or incapacity for emotion > person
thickskin1582
insensiblea1618
unnaturalist1623
non-sensitive1628
apathist1640
stick1801
soulless1824
zombie1936
1936 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) xi. 587 Any performer [in a film] not a Caucasian is a zombie.
1946 J. B. Priestley Bright Day xi. 329 They've spent their lives starving their imagination, just starving it to death. And now they're zombies.
1981 P. Carey Bliss iv. 156 They'll give us electric shocks... They'll give us pills and make us zombies.
2016 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 24 July (Business section) 12 We're all self-medicated, middle-class zombies.
b. Canadian Military slang. In the Second World War (1939–45): (a derogatory nickname for) a man conscripted for home defence under the National Resources Mobilization Act of 1940, as distinct from a volunteer for active service overseas. Chiefly in plural. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by type of service > [noun] > one liable for service > one liable for home defence
fencible1796
zombie1942
1942 Canad. Statesman (Bowmanville, Ont.) 29 Jan. 6/3 It is a matter of common knowledge that they [sc. military conscripts] are called ‘zombies’ by the other chaps in camp.
1946 R. Allen Home Made Banners xiii. 163 My old man says Quebec or no Quebec they'll have to send the Zombies over.
2016 D. T. Byers Zombie Army vi. 170 By 1944 the ranks of the zombies did contain a larger proportion of French-speaking conscripts and men from other non-British backgrounds than among the national population.
4. Philosophy. A hypothetical being which responds to stimuli in the same way as a normal person, but which lacks conscious experience.
ΚΠ
1974 R. Kirk in Mind 83 55 If the argument is sound, then the causal analysis fails to provide a basis for rejecting the logical possibility of Zombies, because it fails to take account of some of the phenomena necessarily involved in sentience.
1994 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 54 837 An intentional zombie is a creature which has intentional states but has and can have no conscious states at all.
2016 Behavior & Philos. 43 9 If zombies are logically possible, the argument goes, conscious experience cannot be physical.
II. Extended and other uses.
5. Originally U.S. A long cocktail consisting of several kinds of rum, liqueur, and fruit juice.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > distilled drink > cocktail > [noun] > rum cocktail
bumbo1701
rum cocktail1841
silky1852
planter's punch1878
Cuba libre1898
daiquiri1920
piña colada1920
presidente1928
mojito1934
zombie1938
mai tai?c1950
Dark and Stormy1983
1938 Lowell (Mass.) Sun 27 Aug. 4/3 At the Beachcombers' club they all had fun at Sampascoopie's expense when I gulped a ‘Zombie’... It is made of five different kinds of rum.
1968 J. M. Ullman Lady on Fire vi. 80 The bartender..went off to prepare a zombie. Forbes hated zombies, but it was the longest drink that came to mind.
2019 @SheilaDelutri 1 Oct. in twitter.com accessed 7 Dec. 2020 Let's drink a zombie from a cocoa shell!
6. Finance. A failing bank, business, etc., which relies on financial assistance from the government to continue operating. Also: a person who or company which is only able to repay the interest on a debt but not the debt itself. Frequently more fully as zombie bank, zombie debtor, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > insolvency > indebtedness > [noun] > debtor > other types of debtor
bankrupt1533
mortgager1607
Alsatian1688
Minter1699
abbey laird1700
judgment debtor1749
peon1826
poor debtor1831
overdrawer1906
zombie1985
1985 Financial Times 28 Sept. (Weekend FT section) 1/1 Large parts of the oil industry, the zombies of the savings, banking and insurance world (still stumbling along but long since dead in terms of true solvency).
1986 Amer. Banker (Nexis) 8 Apr. 1 The fact that ‘zombie’ thrifts are allowed to survive creates serious problems for other, healthier thrifts as well as for bank intermediaries. The zombies tend to bid up the price of deposits, victimizing their neighbors.
1998 Washington Post 1 Dec. d3/1 He cut short-term rates sharply in 1990 to bail out Citibank and other zombie banks that were awash in bad loans but were too big to be allowed to fail.
2012 Daily Echo (Nexis) 25 Apr. One in six people was a ‘zombie debtor’, only able to service the interest on their debts and not reduce them.
7. Computing. A computer or computer network infected with malicious software and controlled without the owner's knowledge, typically used to send spam, perform distributed denial of service attacks, etc. Frequently more fully as zombie computer, zombie network, etc. Cf. botnet n. (b) at bot n.5 Compounds.
ΚΠ
1996 Digest Papers COMPCON '96 58/2 In an age of colorful, network-based threats such as viruses, worms, freeloaders, and zombies, there is amply justified reluctance to blindly execute unknown code.]
1999 Infoworld Daily News (Nexis) 9 Dec. The hackers are gaining control of as many as thousands of vulnerable zombie computers in order to magnify and direct their full-scale assault against a single victim from all directions.
2000 Computer Weekly 2 Mar. 44/3 The group of machines used for the attack—sometimes called a zombie network—can be anywhere in the Internet, and consists of machines that have security weaknesses due to misconfiguration etc.
2002 P. Lilley Hacked, Attacked, & Abused 200 The zombie then transmits a massive amount of packets of useless data to a specific Web site, thus clogging it up and achieving a denial of service attack.
2013 T. Chatfield Netymology xxxix. 121 A ‘zombie computer’ is one that, unknown to its owner, has been infected with malicious software that allows a distant ‘zombie master’ to control it, along with potentially thousands of other machines similarly affected.
Compounds
C1. In general use as a modifier, esp. in sense 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [adjective] > lacking emotional sensibility
unfeelingc1000
mis-feelinga1382
stonishc1450
unpainfulc1450
obtuse1509
sprightlessa1522
insensate1553
senseless1560
soulless1568
dull-esprited1591
impassible1592
bluntie1598
impenetrable1600
stockish1600
stolidc1600
incapable1601
stupid1605
tasteless1605
unsensitive1610
unexalted1611
insensible1617
unsensible1619
languid1622
immovable1639
dead-hearted1642
sterile1642
resupine1643
unaffectionate1645
iron-bound1648
resentlessa1649
torpid1656
torpulent1657
impassive1699
unreceptive1722
hebete1743
apathetic1744
stubbed1744
gustless1766
unresponsive1768
unsusceptible1779
tideless-blooded1786
unaffectioned1788
inaccessible1796
hebetudinous1820
unimpressible1828
insensitive1834
apathetical1835
non-sensitive1836
blunt-hearted1845
irreceptive1846
unreceptant1846
unimpressionable1847
anaesthetic1860
insentient1860
hard (also tough, sharp) as nails1862
unsqueamish1893
tone-deaf1894
unget-at-able1897
facty1901
zombie1937
pegamoid1957
the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > inferior person > [adjective] > as abused
lousyc1386
greasya1529
mongrela1594
shake rotten1595
strummell-patch1600
thornbackly1605
toad-spotted1608
pissabed1643
shit-breeched1664
shit-breech1675
mole-catching1693
nine-eyed1694
poxya1758
cocksucking1872
bastard1877
motherfucking1890
son-of-a-bitching1902
so-and-so1929
mother-raping1932
zombie1937
chickenshit1940
pissy-arsed1940
bastarding1944
mother-loving1948
mothering1951
1937 Daily Mail (Hull) 22 Apr. (Last ed.) 3/3 (advt.) Revolt of the Zombies... Another mighty ‘Zombie’ Story.
1958 A. Wilson Middle Age of Mrs Eliot i. 77 The breathing zombie orchestra around her.
1966 New Statesman 14 Jan. 58/3 A dream-sequence in a cemetery with zombie-hands sprouting like crocuses.
1976 D. Lodge Changing Places (new ed.) v. 162 He could send home, when the time came, some zombie replica of himself.
2015 Sunday Times (Nexis) 10 May (Culture section) 12 In this cheap and cheerfully violent zombie movie from Australia, the coming of the living dead coincides with a mysterious fuel shortage.
C2.
zombie apocalypse n. an imaginary event (as in a film, etc.) in which the world is taken over by zombies.Cf. zombocalypse n.
ΚΠ
1982 Monthly Film Bull. Jan. 229/1 Worldwide fears of a zombie apocalypse are growing rapidly.
2020 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 15 Nov. (Late Final ed.) Jack and his friends fight for their lives through the zombie apocalypse.
zombie worm n. any of various marine (chiefly deep-sea) polychaete worms which comprise the genus Osedax and live on the bones of dead whales (and possibly other marine vertebrates).
ΚΠ
2005 Science 25 Feb. 1191/2 A strange assortment of creatures then colonized the bones.., including several new species of the bone-eating zombie worm.
2015 Belfast Tel. Online (Nexis) 15 Apr. Scientists found that Osedax—popularised as the ‘zombie worm’—originated at least 100 million years ago, and subsisted on the bones of prehistoric reptiles.
Derivatives
ˈzombieism n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > malignant monster > [noun] > zombie > zombiism
zombieism1932
1932 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 4 Aug. 11/6 (advt.) Zombiism..Living Death..A Superstition of Haiti..Robs the Grave! Makes Living Soulless Slaves of the Dead!
2011 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 29 Aug. c1/1 MTV's ‘Death Valley’, a..new comedy-horror series about an outbreak of zombieism, vampirism and werewolfism in the San Fernando Valley.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1788