Entry · catalog no. 1099
gumbo
/ /ˈɡʌm.boʊ/ /GUM-boh
noun · Louisiana · 1800s
✓ Verified
1.
Okra; and the thick Louisiana stew built on it. By extension, a rich mixture of many things.
“Her gumbo started, like it should, with okra and a long roux.”
Origin & Attribution
From a Bantu word for okra — Kimbundu/Kikongo ki ngombo (kingombo) — brought by enslaved West-Central Africans, who contributed both the vegetable and the stewing technique to Louisiana cooking. The word and dish are African at the root, not merely "Creole."
1700s
Enslaved Africans bring okra, technique, and word to Louisiana
1800s
'Gumbo' recorded in American English
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Louisiana · 1800s
Spoken by
Louisiana Creole and Black speakers; now general
$GUMBOThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady221 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
60/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1805
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
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Citations & Sources
■
Lorenzo Dow Turner, "Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect" — scholarship · 1949
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceOxford English Dictionary, "gumbo" from Bantu kingombo — reference · 2000s
submitted
See also