Antedating of "Zombie"

[Shapiro, Fred]

zombie (OED 1819)

1788 _Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure_ Sept. 117 (ProQuest)  The _Zombies_ make a great figure in the superstition of the Negroes.  Like the _Larvae_ of the ancients, they are supposed to be the spirits of dead wicked men, that are permitted to wander, and torment the living.

Fred Shapiro

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