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Vinony

jumbo

adjective

  1. Of extreme or relatively huge size or extent.
L23949 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈd͡ʒʌmbəʊ/ / /ˈd͡ʒʌmboʊ/

adj

Etymology: From Jumbo (1860–1885), the name given to a large African elephant from East Africa that was purchased in 1882 by American showman P. T. Barnum (1810–1891) for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Compare Swahili jambo (“matter, thing”) and jumbe (“chief, headman”).

  1. Especially large or powerful.

    “a jumbo helping”

    “At Bucyrus, Ohio, M. C. Coulter this season has demonstrated that he can grow a nice crop of the jumbo variety of peanuts.”

name

Etymology: From jumbo, from the 19th-century elephant, Jumbo, from Swahili jumbe (“chief”) jambo (“thing”)

  1. A nickname for one or that of a large size
  2. A nickname for one or that of a small size
  3. A traditional animal name for an elephant

noun

Etymology: From (mumbo) jumbo.

  1. Ellipsis of mumbo jumbo (“a deity or other supernatural being worshipped by certain West African peoples; an idol representing such a being”).

    “Returning to the villa, we were greeted by a party which frightened the boys. It was the Moco Jumbo and his suite. The Jumbo was on stilts, with a head, mounted on the actor's head, which was concealed: the music was from two baskets, like strawberry baskets, with little bells within, shook in time. The swordsman danced with an air of menace, the musician was comical, and Jumbo assumed the "antic terrible," and was very active on his stilts.”

    “[A]nother Krooman came hurrying up, holding out a wooden image with a few bits of grass round its neck, and exclaiming, "Wurra! Wurra! Jumbo hang in fetische-house, sure he make much finish die." […] Jumbo was an uncouthly-carved figure of a man, about a foot in height, sitting cross-legged like a tailor, with ears preposterously large, the Kroo mark down the forehead and nose, and a piece of looking-glass fixed in the thorax and abdomen.”