Jamaica, circa 18th century. FromBubedupe(“ghost”)[1][2] (compareAkanadɔpe).
duppy (pluralduppies)
- (Caribbean, Jamaica) Aghost orspirit, often appearing in the form of a dog barking or howling through the night.
- Synonyms:jumbie;see alsoThesaurus:ghost
1774,Edward Long,The History of Jamaica[1], volume 2, page416:They firmly believe in the apparition of spectres. Those of deceased friends areduppies; others, of more hostile and tremendous aspect, like our raw-head-and-bloody-bones, are calledbugaboos.
- (Jamaica, games) Adrawn game ofnoughts and crosses (in Jamaicatii-taa-tuo).
duppy (third-person singular simple presentduppies,present participleduppying,simple past and past participleduppied)
- (MLE, MTE, transitive) Tokill; tomurder.
- 2008, Kingsley Ogundele, online message quoted in2010 January 27, Rob Sharp,"CSI: Chatroom",The Independent
- He refers to his intention to kill a schoolgirl pregnant with Jolie's unborn baby – who the pair believe is giving Jolie undue hassle. "I'll get da fiend toduppy her den," he writes.
2011, Alex Wheatle,The Dirty South, Profile Books,→ISBN, page176:Heduppied my bredren and as long as I could remember Paps was telling me not to trust the Feds.
- Synonyms:seeThesaurus:kill
- (MLE, by extension, transitive) Toexcel in.
- 2011, Kano, guest on Lethal Bizzle, "Pow 2011"
- Iduppied every rave.
- ^Cassidy, Frederic Gomes; Le Page, Robert Brock (2002),Dictionary of Jamaican English, University of the West Indies Press,→ISBN, page164
- ^“duppy”, inMerriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
Possiblyderived fromBubedupe(“ghost”)[1] orAkanadɔpe.[2] CompareBajanduppy.
- IPA(key): /ˈdʌpɪ/
- Hyphenation:du‧ppy
duppy (pluralduppy dem,quantifiedduppy) (Cassidy/JLU orthography spellingdopi)
- ghost; anevilspirit;duppy;poltergeist(ghost)
Yuh fraid aduppy?- Are you afraid ofghosts?
Diduppy dem a mash up di place.- Thepoltergeists are wrecking the place.
2018, “Man uses obeah to chase duppies from house”, inThe Jamaica Star (in English):“Duppy did inna me house one time. Dem did a mek me couldn’t sleep[…]”- Once there werepoltergeists in my home. I had trouble sleeping because of them […]
- ^Cassidy, Frederic Gomes; Le Page, Robert Brock (2002),Dictionary of Jamaican English, University of the West Indies Press,→ISBN, page164
- ^Richard Allsopp, editor (1996),Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Kingston, Jamaica:University of the West Indies Press, published2003,→ISBN,page207
