kumbaya
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Gullah. Apparently a corruption of the English phrase “come by here” in a spiritual song.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]kumbaya
- The title of the etymological folk song, used with varying degrees of sincerity or sarcasm to refer to the song's evocations of spiritual unity and interpersonal harmony.
- 2024, Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars, Harvill Secker, page 163:
- Dr. Hoffman told me the word kumbaya was originally an African American spiritual, a song that was also a prayer asking for divine intervention, asking for help in dire times, and that then the hippies in the sixties took it and sang it to mean unity amid protest, and then it got played out and became a stand-in for corniness about togetherness.
