The Collaborative International Dictionary
Timbuctoo \Timbuctoo\, Timbuktoo \Timbuktoo\prop. n.,
A city on the southern edge of the Sahara, in central Africa,
some nine miles from the Niger. It is about three miles
around, and was formerly surrounded by a clay wall. Timbuctoo
has a large caravan trade, gold dust being the most important
export. The people are negroes, Tuariks, Mandingoes, Arabs,
Foolahs, etc. The city was founded in the 12th century, but
was first seen by a white man in 1826. Timbuctoo now belongs
to France, and a railroad is proposed to connect Algiers,
Timbuctoo and Senegambia. Population, 13,000 (1893), greatly
increased during the trading season from November to January.
--Student's Cyclopedia, 1897.
Wikipedia
Timbuctoo is a series of 26 children's books, written and illustrated by Roger Hargreaves, better known for his Mr Men series. It was published from 1978–79. The books tell the stories of a group of animals, each of whom is named after the sound that their particular animal makes. An animated series (produced by Flicks Films for Cosgrove Hall Films) of Timbuctoo was shown on CITV, ARBC and CBBC in the mid-90s, narrated by Ronnie Corbett.
Timbuctoo is a 1933 British comedy film, co-directed by Walter Summers and Arthur B. Woods for British International Pictures, and starring Henry Kendall and Margot Grahame. Although BIP had a reputation for churning out films quickly and cheaply, in this case they allocated enough of a budget to finance location filming in Africa.
Timbuctoo is the fictional account of the illiterate American sailor Robert Adams' true life journey to Timbuktu, and his arrival in Regency London. The novel is written by Anglo-Afghan author, filmmaker, and adventurer Tahir Shah. It was released on July 5, 2012 by Secretum Mundi Publishing.
The full title of the book is Timbuctoo: Being a singular and most animated account of an illiterate American sailor, taken as a slave in the great Zahara and, after trials and tribulations aplenty, reaching London where he narrated his tale. The story takes place between 1810—when Adams was shipwrecked—and the Spring on 1816, when he set sail for his home in Hudson, New York.
Usage examples of "timbuctoo".
He spoke of Timbuctoo, the gate of the Sahara and the Western Soudan, the frontier town where life ended and met and mingled, whither the camel of the desert brought the weapons and merchandise of Europe as well as salt, that indispensable commodity, and where the pirogues of the Niger landed the precious ivory, the surface gold, the ostrich feathers, the gum, the crops, all the wealth of the fruitful valley.
Someone in Asgard had said that Timbuctoo would be the next to go, with Byzantium rising in its place.
As for the appearance of Timbuctoo, the reader has but to imagine a collection of billiard-balls and thimbles--such is the bird's-eye view!
Jenne is, in fact, quite a commercial city: it supplies all the wants of Timbuctoo.