Jaboney

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term used in parts of West Africa for a white person or European foreigner, sometimes used as a form of address
2. An informal West African word meaning a white foreigner, often a European or American visitor
3. In some West African English and pidgin usage, a label for a white outsider or non-African person

Etymology: In Gullah Geechee communities along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, "jaboney" has long been a word for a white person, and it spread into wider African American speech. It is often used with a note of distance or mild mockery, as a way of naming an outsider rather than a neighbor. Where it came from is uncertain. Scholars have proposed several routes. One idea connects it to West African languages that were spoken by enslaved people brought to the region. Another links it to Spanish "gavacho," a word for a foreigner, although the sound and meaning changes needed for that link are not well documented. Because the term appears mainly in spoken Gullah and was rarely written down early on, no single origin has been firmly established.