Dictionary

gris-gris en · NOUN

Etymology

Unknown. Compare juju (“a fetish or charm”); compare also Mande gerregery or Mandingo gregory, an amulet or curse-object.

Meanings

1. An African, or Afro-American, charm or talisman.
   • The Bambara were not Muslim, but they knew how to make gris-gris. 2008, Ned Sublette, The World That Made New Orleans, Lawrence Hill Books, published 2009, page 61:
   • A horn, or rude image, is sometimes made use of as a means of preserving the medicines of defense, and is worn as an amulet. These images, horns, or other articles, called greegrees, or jeujeus, are not held sacred for a moment after the medicine is found to have lost its power […]. 1865, David Livingstone, Charles Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries:

Forms

Relateds

conjuration · conjure · hoodoo

Translations (2)

pl gris-gris (charm) · fr grigri (charm)