Ibo, a. and n.
(ˈiːbəʊ)
Also Ebo, Igbo.
[Native name.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to the Ibos (see below). Cf. Eboe.
Some of the examples refer to Ibos in the U.S.A. and the West Indies.
| 1732 South Carolina Gaz. 20/1 Stolen..an old Ebo Negro Man;..had on a blue Negro Cloth Frock. 1774 E. Long Hist. Jamaica II. iii. ii. 403 The Ebo men are lazy, and averse to every laborious employment; the women performing almost all the work in their own country. 1799 [see Negro 3 a]. 1822 J. Adams Sk. Voy. Afr. iii. 41 Breeché, in the Heebo language, signifies gentleman. 1834 [see Eboe]. 1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 319/1 Soudan and Guinea... Ibo group. 1899 E. A. Wise in Niger & Yoruba Notes Nov. 37/1 We are morally pledged to do this by having a Mission in the Ibo country for over 40 years. 1950 D. Jones Phoneme 21 The Igbo language of Nigeria. 1951 R. Firth Elem. Social Organiz. v. 165 Some of the Ibo people of South-Eastern Nigeria construct elaborate series of clay figures. 1960 Spectator 31 Oct. 616 The squalor and nobility of life in an Ibo tribe. 1968 Listener 19 Sept. 353/1 The Ibo officer who had just murdered the Premier of the Northern Region. Ibid., The Ibo leader, Ojukwu, and his five or six million Ibo are now concentrated within a narrowing portion of their former region. |
B. n.
1. a. A Negro people of the lower Niger in Africa; also, a member of this people.
| 1757 St Jago Intelligencer 14 May, 1 Ebo, 1 Angola, 1 Mundingo. [1789 O. Equiano Life I. i. 18 Mahogany-coloured men from the south west of us: we call them Oye-Eboe, which term signifies red men living at a distance.] 1822 J. Adams Sk. Voy. Afr. iii. 40 To this nation the Heebos express a strong aversion. Ibid. 41 The Heebos, in their persons, are tall and well-formed. 1822 Amer. Beacon (Norfolk, Va.) 3 Sept. 2/1 (Th. Suppl.), Monday Gell is an Ebo, and now in the prime of life. 1836 F. H. Rankin White Man's Grave I. v. 106 Shortly after arriving, when Settlers and Maroons were to me as equally black and undistinguishable as Soosoos and Ibbos, I innocently inflicted deep injury on the sensitive mind of the laundress by inquiring why she had omitted to bring home some particular article of dress. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 223/2 The Ibo are a strong well-built Negro race. 1954 M. Gluckman in Institutions Primitive Soc. vi. 70 In the past, an Ibo in Nigeria could only travel safely in distant parts to trade by following chains of relationship from place to place. 1960 Guardian 15 July 15/3 The Ibos (or better, the Igbos) live mainly in the Eastern Region [of Nigeria]. 1961 Listener 30 Nov. 901/2 The intensely individualistic and vital Ibo in the south-east [of Nigeria]. 1973 Black World Jan. 9/1 Another example is the figure of Ikenga—god of fortune among the Igbos—in whose left hand is a skull. |
b. The language of this people, which constitutes one of the major language groups of Nigeria.
| 1880 Mrs. G. Sturge tr. Burdo's Niger & Benueh viii. 141 ‘The King, our master,’ one of them said to me in the language of Ebo. 1883 R. N. Cust Sk. Mod. Lang. Afr. I. xi. 223 Ibo or eboe: commences at the apex of the Delta of the Niger... There appear to be four dialects. 1950 Forde & Jones Ibo & Ibibio Speaking Peoples 11 Igbo is one of the Kwa languages. 1955 [see Fanti n. and a. a]. 1958 J. S. Coleman Nigeria i. 18 Before the British occupation..the present Eastern region consisted of small semiautonomous communities of Ibo- and Ibibio-speaking peoples. 1962 Amer. Speech XXXVII. 227 A case of disagreement taken from Ibo, a tone language. 1968 Chomsky & Halle Sound Pattern Eng. 378 In a language such as Turkish there are four classes of harmonizing words, rather than two as in Nez Perce or Igbo. |