obeah
16 synonyms for obeah, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun
A form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.
“Although lacking a self-perpetuating institutional structure, Obeah was a crucial element of Afro-Caribbean religions everywhere from Suriname's Maroon societies (communities of runaway slaves) to the Leeward Islands' slave societies.”
2. noun
A person who practises this kind of magic; a witch doctor.
“Although Adair suspected that obeahs often employed poisons, he emphasized that the diseases induced by obeahs resulted from "depraved imagination, or a powerful excitement or depression of the mental faculties."”
3. noun
A magic spell used in this kind of witchcraft, or an object connected with it.
Etymology
Uncertain; apparently from a Caribbean creole, probably ultimately from a West African language. The Oxford English Dictionary points to Igbo abià (“knowledge, wisdom”), obìa (“doctor, healer”). Cognate of Aukan obiya, Saramaccan obia, and Sranan Tongo obia.
Full origin of obeah →