Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Anything supernatural or mysterious, and an object of religious fear or veneration; a charm; a fetish; also, an observance of mysterious significance like the taboo: used in relation to the religious ideas of the negroes of West Africa.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun the magical power associated with a juju{2}.
  • noun An object superstitiously believed to embody magical powers; a fetish.

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

  • noun A fetish or charm believed by West Africans to have magical or supernatural powers.
  • noun The magical or supernatural power of such a charm.
  • noun A superstitious belief in the karmic consequences of an action or behavior, usually negative in connotation.
  • noun A type of music popular in Nigeria. (See Jùjú music)
  • noun slang A marijuana cigarette; a joint.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a charm superstitiously believed to embody magical powers
  • noun the power associated with a juju

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Reduplication of -ju- in marijuana.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From a West African language, probably originally from French joujou.

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Examples

  • I get bad juju from the fat one sitting in the chair, lurking in the corner.

    ORPHANAGES ARE STILL HORROR-FILLED 2007

  • Bad juju is found in penalizing millions of people that disagree.

    Scripting News for 3/13/2007 « Scripting News Annex 2007

  • "One theory about the name juju is that it comes from a Yoruba word for playing a tambourine."

    azcentral.com | news Richard Nilsen 2010

  • King Sunny Adé has sold millions of records playing a type of music called juju, which derives from Salvation Army music heard in Nigeria in the 1930s.

    azcentral.com | news Richard Nilsen 2010

  • First thing that comes to mind Name 1 aber from your first letter from your first name juju bee My name: Esperanza

    Answerbag: Latest Questions in Question Categories 2009

  • As his tour bus rolls between dates in Minnesota and Illinois, Adé, whose given name is Sunday Adeniyi, ruminates over the phone on the differences between the upbeat music he plays called juju - a Nigerian word for magic - and the Afrobeat of the late Fela Kuti, his nation's other leading musical exponent.

    Boston Phoenix - thePhoenix.com 2009

  • CARLOS WAS ABOUT TWELVE THE FIRST TIME HE WENT TO A witchdoctor in search of objects infused with supernatural powers, known as juju.

    Spellbound Karen Palmer 2010

  • CARLOS WAS ABOUT TWELVE THE FIRST TIME HE WENT TO A witchdoctor in search of objects infused with supernatural powers, known as juju.

    Spellbound Karen Palmer 2010

  • CARLOS WAS ABOUT TWELVE THE FIRST TIME HE WENT TO A witchdoctor in search of objects infused with supernatural powers, known as juju.

    Spellbound Karen Palmer 2010

  • jazz being a colloquial euphemism for what I suppose the Westerner would call juju

    To google or not to google,a sense of deja vu and jazzed liberal democrats uknaija 2006

Comments

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  • Based on v.'s list, Dictionary.com is repeating itself today.

    August 21, 2008

  • variously "good juju" or "bad juju"; cf. mojo.

    October 19, 2008