Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A derogatory name for a negro.
  • noun offensive, obsolete A person of 3/4 African descent and 1/4 Caucasian descent.
  • proper noun A nickname of the given name Samuel.
  • proper noun A nickname of the given name Samantha.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the given names Samuel or Samantha.

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Examples

  • "What you larf for, what you larf for, you little rascals, you play trick, eh? you call Sambo, who taught you dat name?" and he seized the two boys and shook them furiously.

    The Young Buglers 1867

  • Then he stooped down to the boys, and shook his fist in their faces, "You little debils, you call Sambo, I pound you to squash."

    The Young Buglers 1867

  • The book was popular until the word Sambo became identified as racially derogatory.

    RutlandHerald.com 2009

  • And how dared the insolent dogs address a colonel as "Sambo" - and one of 'em with a pipe stuck between his grinning teeth?

    Fiancée 2010

  • And how dared the insolent dogs address a colonel as "Sambo" - and one of 'em with a pipe stuck between his grinning teeth?

    Flashman In The Great Game Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1975

  • 'Sambo' -- for such is the Soudanese equivalent of 'Tommy' -- was a lazy, fierce, disreputable child.

    The River War An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan Winston S. Churchill 1919

  • As you knwo I usually don't agree with your use of th word Sambo, but I have come to realize that it's a reaction to th fact that most black men don't deserve to live til the end.

    X-Men Origins: Wolverine Steven Barnes 2009

  • There used to be a chain of pancake restaurants in the Midwest called Sambo's, but that was back in the mid-70s, when you could actually have a menu with a picture of a black kid with huge red lips eating "one hundred and sixty-nine pancakes."

    I'm a Little Light in the Skechers 2004

  • There used to be a chain of pancake restaurants in the Midwest called Sambo's, but that was back in the mid-70s, when you could actually have a menu with a picture of a black kid with huge red lips eating "one hundred and sixty-nine pancakes."

    pentultimatrimonial 2004

  • Southern Negro called Sambo, and upon the suggestion of Ikey he is engaged as porter.

    Over the Top Arthur Guy Empey 1923

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