What is "jamaica"

Jamaica \Ja*mai"ca\, n. One of the West Indian islands.

Jamaica ginger, a variety of ginger, called also white ginger, prepared in Jamaica from the best roots, which are deprived of their epidermis and dried separately.

Jamaica pepper, allspice.

Jamaica rose (Bot.), a West Indian melastomaceous shrub ( Blakea trinervis), with showy pink flowers.

West Indian island, from Taino (Arawakan) xaymaca, said to mean "rich in springs." Columbus when he found it in 1494 named it Santiago, but this did not stick. Related: Jamaican. The Jamaica in New York probably is a Delaware (Algonquian) word meaning "beaver pond" altered by influence of the island name.

n. roselle

Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles. The island, in area, lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island containing the nation-states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Jamaica is the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean, by area.

Inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish imported African slaves as laborers. Named , it remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered the island and renamed it Jamaica. Under British colonial rule, Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with its plantation economy highly dependent on slaves imported from Africa. All slaves were fully emancipated in 1838 and many freedmen chose to have subsistence farms rather than work on plantations. Beginning in the 1840s, the British imported Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations. The island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962.

With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas (after the United States and Canada), and the fourth-most populous country in the Caribbean. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city, with a population of 937,700. Jamaicans are of predominately African descent, with significant European, Chinese, Hakka, Indian, and mixed-race minorities. Due to a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, Jamaica has a large diaspora around the world, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. Her appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, currently Sir Patrick Allen. The head of government and Prime Minister of Jamaica is Andrew Holness. Jamaica is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with legislative power vested in the bicameral Parliament of Jamaica, consisting of an appointed Senate and a directly elected House of Representatives.

Jamaica is a nation in the Caribbean Sea.

Jamaica may also refer to:

1. redirect hibiscus tea

Jamaica is a major hub station of the Long Island Rail Road, and is located in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. It is the largest transit hub on Long Island and is one of the busiest railroad stations in the country with weekday ridership exceeding 200,000 passengers. In the New York City area, it ranks only behind Pennsylvania Station, Grand Central Terminal, and Secaucus Junction, with over 1,000 trains passing through it every day, while there is a direct rail connection to John F. Kennedy International Airport via AirTrain JFK. There are also elevator connections to the Archer Avenue Lines of the New York City Subway at a separate station directly below. The area just outside is served by several local bus routes, with more available within a few blocks of the station.

All LIRR services except the Port Washington Branch pass through Jamaica Station. The Main Line westwards leads to Long Island City, Queens and Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, while the Atlantic Branch diverges along Atlantic Avenue to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. The Montauk Branch also serves one daily trip to Long Island City. East of Jamaica, these three lines diverge, with some branch services using the Main Line, some using the Atlantic Branch, and some using the Montauk Branch.

Because of its central location on all services (except the Port Washington Branch), it is common for commuters to "change at Jamaica," i.e., switch trains to reach their final destination.

Jamaica : A Novel (2007) is a novel by Australian author Malcolm Knox. It won the Colin Roderick Award in 2007, and was shortlisted for the Fiction category of the 2008 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.

Jamaica is a musical with a book by Yip Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Harold Arlen. It is set on a small island off the coast of Jamaica, and tells about a simple island community fighting to avoid being overrun by American commercialism.

Arlen's music parodies the popular form of Calypso, which was in vogue in the 1950s, largely as a result of the popularity of Harry Belafonte, for whom the musical was originally written. Belafonte withdrew from the production due to illness, and the musical was then tailored around the talents of Lena Horne. Harburg was blacklisted in Hollywood at the time of the writing of the musical, and the satire is unusually pointed. With Calypso so out of fashion the musical now is dated, but many of the issues raised in its songs, including evolution, nuclear energy, and consumerism, remain topical today.

"Jamaica" is a song by Canadian rock group Bachman–Turner Overdrive that appears on the 1979 album Rock n' Roll Nights. It features Jim Clench on lead vocals. It was written by well-known songwriter Jim Vallance. It was released as a single but did not chart. The song, along with "Heartaches," was played live on American Bandstand in February 1979 to support the Rock n' Roll Nights album release.

Using different lyrics, Rick Springfield remade the song under the title "Kristina" on his 1982 album Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet.