origin/meaning of "mojo"
Tomoyuki Tanaka
In article <36F85DA5...@icsl.ucla.edu>,
mike severa <sev...@icsl.ucla.edu> wrote:
>hi, i was wondering if anyone could tell me where the term "mojo"
>originates?
>thanks, mike.
the magazine "Mother Jones" often calls itself MoJo.
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X-URL: http://www.luckymojo.com/mojo.html
MOJO
[INLINE] Everybody in America seems to have heard the word
"mojo," but darned few white folks know what it means. Cecil
Adams, author of "The Straight Dope" series that purports to
give truthful answers to often-asked trivial questions,
completely messed up his research on this one, mumbling his
way through theories that "mojo" means the sex act or a male
sexual organ -- and even giving space to the drug-addled
white singer Jim Morrison's self-applied sobriquet of "Mr.
Mojo Risin'" as an indication that a mojo is a penis.
For the record, "Mr. Mojo Risin'" is nothing more than an
anagram for "Jim Morrison." Morrison apparently heard the
[...]
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X-URL: http://members.tripod.com/~MoJo_Workin/
Whats a Mo Jo ?
Webster's Dictionary offered the following definition:
mo·jo
Pronunciation: 'mO-(")jO
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural mojoes or mojos
Etymology: probably of African origin; akin to Fulani moco'o
medicine man
Date: 1926
: a magic spell, hex, or charm; broadly : magical power
If the definition to "mojo" is available in most
dictionaries, why then the furor and debate? What's to be
so confused about. Evidentally, the issue is not as
simple as that. When asked what "mojo" was, of 3500
Americans polled, only 85% dared offer an answer (about 6
out of 7). Here is a sample of the confusion out there:
* "It's kinda like Magic."
* "Funky sixties and it might be something sexual."
* "Well, mojo is just...mojo, ya know?"
* "A zebra."
* "Isn't that a straw man?"
* "Like bad juju,Man like really like unlucky stuff."
[...]
Ross Clark
Well, half those answers aren't too far wrong...
Many people probably first encountered this word in blues lyrics like
Muddy Waters' "Got my mojo workin'". Here the literal meaning is clearly
a magical charm/amulet/fetish, but its purpose is specifically sexual -
although unsuccessful in the present case ("Just don't work on you").
This opens up the whole area of sexual associations. Also since the mojo
is something rather secret, which exerts invisible power, it is
intrinsically subject to ambiguity and misinterpretation, hence has
acquired a range of innovative meanings. Both American slang
dictionaries I looked in gave it as a term for drugs, which I haven't
heard myself, but seems like a natural development.
Ross Clark