different between hoodoo vs obeah

English

Etymology

Apparently an alteration of voodoo.

Noun

hoodoo (countable and uncountable, plural hoodoos)

1. (chiefly US) A practitioner of voodoo.
2. (chiefly US) Supernatural bad luck, or something or someone believed to bring bad luck.
3. (geology) A tall thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of arid basins and badlands.
   • 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster 2014, p. 71:

     It was even larger than the mirage made it look—a dozen miles across and a thousand feet deep, with fins and towers and hoodoos like observation posts, mesas and minor buttes, springs flowing brightly in the red rock.

Synonyms

• (spire of rock): tent rock, fairy chimney, earth pyramid

Translations

Verb

hoodoo (third-person singular simple present hoodoos, present participle hoodooing, simple past and past participle hoodooed)

1. (transitive) To jinx; to bring bad luck or misfortune to.

References

• “hoodoo”, Bill Casselman

English

Alternative forms

• obe, obea, obi, obia, oby

Etymology

Origin 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”).

Pronunciation

• (Caribbean) IPA^(key): /?obia/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???b??/
• Hyphenation: o?be?ah

Noun

obeah (countable and uncountable, plural obeahs)

1. A form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.
2. A magician or witch doctor of the magic craft.
3. A spell performed in the practice of the magic craft; an item associated with such a spell.

Verb

obeah (third-person singular simple present obeahs, present participle obeahing, simple past and past participle obeahed)

1. (transitive) To bewitch using this kind of folk magic.
   • 1906 December – 1907 May, Isabella S. Abel, “The Obeah-man”, in The Windsor Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women, volume XXV, London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited Warwick House, Salisbury Square, E.C., published 1907, OCLC 224679211, page 392:

     A poor old woman who thinks she has been Obeahed lies ill in an isolated hut on the short cut to New Castle. I discovered her while out shooting, and promised to send her medical aid. Her case is pressing.

References

Anagrams

• bohea