jumbo: Definition, Synonyms and Much More from Answers.com

n., pl. -bos.

An unusually large person, animal, or thing.

adj.

Unusually large: jumbo shrimp; a jumbo jet.

[After Jumbo, a large elephant exhibited by P.T. Barnum, probably from slang, clumsy person.]

from Mandingo
This word originated in Gambia and Mali

One of the biggest words in the English language is an import from Africa. Before it attained its current meaning, it was imported in the phrase mumbo jumbo, introduced to English by one Francis Moore in a 1738 account of his African travels: "At Night, I was visited by a Mumbo Jumbo, an Idol, which is among the Mundingoes a kind of cunning Mystery.... This is a Thing invented by the Men to keep their Wives in awe." And in 1799, another Englishman, Mungo Park, in his Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa Performed Under The Direction and Patronage of the African Association, wrote about "A sort of masquerade habit...which I was told...belonged to Mumbo Jumbo. This is a strange bugbear...much employed by the Pagan natives in keeping their women in subjection."

Later travelers to West Africa have been unable to find any trace of this supposed custom. Meanwhile, however, jumbo was beginning to make itself hugely useful in the English language. By the early nineteenth century, jumbo was noted in a slang dictionary as referring to "a clumsy or unwieldy fellow." But it had a jumbo increase in popularity and meaning when P.T. Barnum bought Jumbo, an enormous elephant, from the London zoo in 1882 and exhibited this elephant as the star of his circus. Soon other animals and things were also called jumbo. In 1883 the generators in Thomas Edison's first electric power station were so large they were called "Jumbo." At the other end of the scale, there were "jumbo" crickets that year too. We have since seen such jumbos as peaches (1897), peanuts (1916), malted milk (1940), martinis (1958), burgers (1959), and jets (1964). If a soft drink isn't jumbo nowadays, it's hardly worth buying.

Mandingo is actually a group of closely related languages in West Africa belonging to the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The seventeen Mandingo languages are spoken by more than two million people in Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and adjoining countries. Mandingo includes the Malinke and Bambara languages, which we will visit individually, but Moore's account does not allow us to be more specific for jumbo. The Mandingo group has not had a jumbo influence on the English language, but we can thank it for half a dozen additional words, including a couple of good things to eat: banana (1597) and possibly yam (1657).

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - stor klodset ting eller person, kæmpe-, svær lossebom
adj. - jumbo-

Nederlands (Dutch)
groot dier/mens/ding, Boeing 747 vliegtuig, olifant, kolossaal (in zijn soort), extra groot

Français (French)
n. - éléphant, jumbo (jet)
adj. - géant

Deutsch (German)
n. - riesiges Exemplar, Jumbo
adj. - riesig

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - οτιδήποτε τεράστιο, (μτφ.) μεγαθήριο, (αεροσκάφος) τζάμπο
adj. - υπερμεγέθης, πελώριος, ογκώδης

Italiano (Italian)
colosso, animale o persona grossa e goffa (come un elefante), colossale

Português (Portuguese)
n., -
adj. - jumbo (m), grande, enorme

Русский (Russian)
слон, великан, аэробус

Español (Spanish)
n. - coloso, elefante, avión Boeing 747, persona o animal muy corpulento
adj. - colosal, enorme, gigantesco

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - jumbo(elefant), jätte, koloss, jumbojet(plan)
adj. - jättelik

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
庞然大物, 巨大的

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 龐然大物
adj. - 巨大的

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 크고 볼품 없는 사람, 점보 제트기, 이동 굴착기
adj. - 특대의

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 非常に大きなもの, ドリルキャリジ, 巨大なもの
adj. - 非常に大きい, 特大の, 巨大な

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فيل, جامبو (صفه) كبير جدا, ضخم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮ענק, גדול מהרגיל, (מטוס) ג'מבו‬
adj. - ‮גדול מהרגיל, ענקי‬

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