Jigaboo

//ˈd͡ʒɪɡəbuː// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A black person. dated, offensive, slang

    "[…] a thicklips, a jigaboo or a jungle bunny, a spook or a spearchucker. My least favourite of these names that people found for black people was the rancid and disgusting “munter”, a Bantu word which the Afrikaners used as an expletive […]"

  2. 2
    (ethnic slur) extremely offensive name for a Black person wordnet
  3. 3
    Any dark-skinned person. dated, offensive, slang

Example

More examples

"[…] a thicklips, a jigaboo or a jungle bunny, a spook or a spearchucker. My least favourite of these names that people found for black people was the rancid and disgusting “munter”, a Bantu word which the Afrikaners used as an expletive […]"

Etymology

Possibly an African word akin to Bantu tshikabo (“they bow the head docilely”). Alternatively, perhaps from jig, formed similarly to bug and bugaboo.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.