What is "zombie"

1871, of West African origin (compare Kikongo zumbi "fetish;" Kimbundu nzambi "god"), originally the name of a snake god, later with meaning "reanimated corpse" in voodoo cult. But perhaps also from Louisiana creole word meaning "phantom, ghost," from Spanish sombra "shade, ghost." Sense "slow-witted person" is recorded from 1936.

n. 1 A snake god or fetish in religions of West Africa and elsewhere. 2 (context voodoo superstition English) A person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces (such as magic), with no soul or will of his/her own. 3 (context fiction English) A deceased person who becomes reanimate to attack the living. 4 (context figuratively English) An apathetic person. 5 (context figuratively English) A human being in a state of extreme mental exhaustion. 6 An information worker who has signed a nondisclosure agreement. 7 (context computing English) A process or task which has terminated but was not removed from the list of processes, typically because it has child processes that have not yet terminated. 8 (context computing English) A computer affected by malware which causes it to do whatever the attacker wants it to do without the user's knowledge. 9 A cocktail of rum and fruit juices. 10 (context Canada historical derogatory English) A conscripted member of the Canadian military during World War II who was assigned to home defence rather than to combat in Europe.''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', 2nd edition, Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton Canada, 1988. See "National Resources Mobilization Act," p. 1433. 11 (context philosophy English) A hypothetical person who lacks self awareness.

1. n. a dead body that has been brought back to life by a supernatural force [syn: zombi, the living dead]

2. (voodooism) a spirit or supernatural force that reanimates a dead body [syn: zombi, zombi spirit, zombie spirit]

3. a god of voodoo cults of African origin worshipped especially in West Indies [syn: zombi, snake god]

4. someone who acts or responds in a mechanical or apathetic way; "only an automaton wouldn't have noticed" [syn: automaton, zombi]

5. several kinds of rum with fruit juice and usually apricot liqueur [syn: zombi]

The Zombie, (also known as skull-puncher), is a cocktail made of fruit juices, liqueurs, and various rums. It first appeared in late 1934, invented by Donn Beach (formerly Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gannt) of Hollywood's Don the Beachcomber restaurant. It was popularized soon afterwards at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

In computer science, a zombie is a computer connected to the Internet that has been compromised by a hacker, computer virus or trojan horse and can be used to perform malicious tasks of one sort or another under remote direction. Botnets of zombie computers are often used to spread e-mail spam and launch denial-of-service attacks. Most owners of zombie computers are unaware that their system is being used in this way. Because the owner tends to be unaware, these computers are metaphorically compared to zombies. A coordinated DDoS attack by multiple botnet machines also resembles a zombie horde attack.

"Zombie" is a protest song by Irish rock band The Cranberries. It was released in September 1994 as the lead single from their second studio album, No Need to Argue (1994). The song was written by the band's lead singer Dolores O'Riordan, and reached No. 1 on the charts in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, and Germany.

It won the "Best Song" award at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Zombie is traditionally an undead person in Haitian folklore and is regularly encountered in fictional horror and fantasy themed works.

Zombi, Zombie, or Zomby may also refer to:

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the zombie is an undead creature, usually created by applying a template to another creature.

Zombie is a studio album by Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti. It was released in Nigeria by Coconut Records in 1976, and in the United Kingdom by Creole Records in 1977.

The album criticised the Nigerian government; and it is thought to have resulted in the murder of Kuti's mother Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, and the destruction of his commune by the military.

Zombie is a 1995 novel by Joyce Carol Oates which explores the mind of a serial killer. It was based on the life of Jeffrey Dahmer.

Dahmer stated in an interview with Stone Phillips, "The only motive that there ever was to completely control a person, a person I found physically attractive, and keep them with me as long as possible, even if it meant keeping a part of them.".

A short-film adaptation starred Bill Connington, developed from his successful one-man stage adaptation, was directed by Tom Caruso.

The Zombie (Simon William Garth) is a fictional supernatural character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett for the standalone story "Zombie" in the horror- anthology comic book Menace #5 ( cover-dated July 1953), which was published by Atlas Comics, a forerunner to Marvel. The character later became well known for starring in the black-and-white, horror- comic magazine series Tales of the Zombie (1973–1975), usually in stories by Steve Gerber and Pablo Marcos.

A zombie ( Haitian French: zombi, Haitian Creole: zonbi) is a fictional undead being created through the reanimation of a human corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, where a zombie is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magic. Modern depictions of zombies do not necessarily involve magic but often invoke science fictional methods such as radiation, mental diseases, viruses, scientific accidents, etc.

The English word "zombie" is first recorded in 1819, in a history of Brazil by the poet Robert Southey, in the form of "zombi". The Oxford English Dictionary gives the origin of the word as West African, and compares it to the Kongo words nzambi (god) and zumbi ( fetish).

One of the first books to expose Western culture to the concept of the voodoo zombie was The Magic Island by W.B. Seabrook in 1929. This is the sensationalized account of a narrator who encounters voodoo cults in Haiti and their resurrected thralls. Time claimed that the book "introduced 'zombi' into U.S. speech".

Zombies have a complex literary heritage, with antecedents ranging from Richard Matheson and H. P. Lovecraft to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein drawing on European folklore of the undead. In 1932, Victor Halperin directed White Zombie, a horror film starring Bela Lugosi. Here zombies are depicted as mindless, unthinking henchmen under the spell of an evil magician. Zombies, often still using this voodoo-inspired rationale, were initially uncommon in cinema, but their appearances continued sporadically through the 1930s to the 1960s, with notable films including I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).

A new version of the zombie, distinct from that described in Haitian folklore, has also emerged in popular culture in recent decades. This "zombie" is taken largely from George A. Romero's seminal film Night of the Living Dead, which was in turn partly inspired by Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend. The word zombie is not used in Night of the Living Dead, but was applied later by fans. The monsters in the film and its sequels, such as Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, as well as its many inspired works, such as Return of the Living Dead and Zombi 2, are usually hungry for human flesh, although Return of the Living Dead introduced the popular concept of zombies eating brains. The " zombie apocalypse" concept, in which the civilized world is brought low by a global zombie infestation, became a staple of modern popular art.

Zombie is the first EP by American metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada. It was released on August 23, 2010. The band announced they would tour in support of the EP's five year anniversary, where they will play the album in its entirety.