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mumbo jumbo

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mum⋅bo jum⋅bo

  [muhm-boh juhm-boh]
Use mumbo jumbo in a Sentence
–noun, plural mum⋅bo jum⋅bos.
1. meaningless incantation or ritual.
2. senseless or pretentious language, usually designed to obscure an issue, confuse a listener, or the like.
3. an object of superstitious awe or reverence.
4. (initial capital letters) the guardian of western Sudan villages symbolized by a masked man who combats evil and punishes women for breaches of tribal laws.
Origin:
1730–40; of disputed orig.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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mum·bo jum·bo or mum·bo-jum·bo   (mŭm'bō-jŭm'bō)   
n.   pl. mum·bo jum·bos or mum·bo-jum·bos

  1. Unintelligible or incomprehensible language; gibberish.

  2. Language or ritualistic activity intended to confuse.

  3. A complicated or obscure ritual.

  4. An object believed to have supernatural powers; a fetish.


[Perhaps of Mandingo origin .]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

mumbo jumbo 
1738, name of an idol supposedly worshipped by certain tribes in Africa; said to be a corruption of words in Mandingo (one version is Mama Dyumbo), but no likely source has been found in the languages of the Niger region, to which the original accounts relate. Meaning "big, empty talk" is attested from 1896.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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