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Animals, Plants & Nature
208 entries in this part of the language, each with meanings, pronunciation and worked examples.
- Ackee-walk A grove or stand of ackee trees.
- Ants Ants — often used in the singular form 'ants' for one or many ('a ants a crawl').
- Badoo An old Jamaican name for coco (the dasheen/taro corm) — the starchy root eaten as a boiled…
- Baldpate A wild pigeon with a pale white crown, so named for its 'bald' (white) head — the…
- Bamboo The tall, jointed, fast-growing cane that grows in dense clumps along Jamaican rivers and…
- Banana-quit A tiny, bold yellow-breasted nectar bird with a curved beak and a black cap, forever busy…
- Basil The fragrant herb basil — grown in the yard and used both in cooking and, importantly, in…
- Batimamselle A dragonfly — the darting, long-bodied insect with gauzy wings seen hovering and skimming…
- Bird A bird — the general word for any small flying bird, from the sparrow to the kling-kling.
- Bitter cassava The variety of cassava that is toxic when raw and must be grated, pressed to squeeze out…
- Black crab The black land crab, dark-shelled and much prized for eating — famously associated with…
- Blackie mango A small, dark-skinned Jamaican mango variety — the 'blackie' — with a deep…
- Blue hole A deep natural swimming pool of startlingly clear, vivid blue water — formed where a…
- Blue Mahoe The national tree of Jamaica (Talipariti elatum) — a tall hardwood prized for its beautiful…
- Bombay mango A large, round, golden mango variety with sweet, soft, juicy flesh, another of the…
- Breadfruit leaf The large, deeply lobed leaf of the breadfruit tree, dried and boiled as a bush tea in…
- Breadnut A close relative of the breadfruit whose fruit is packed with large edible seeds rather…
- Breeze Wind of any strength — for in Patois 'breeze' covers everything from the gentlest draught…
- Bull thatch A kind of thatch palm whose broad, tough fronds are cut and used for thatching roofs and…
- Bull-frog A large frog, named for its deep, bellowing croak that carries across ponds and gullies at…
- Busu A freshwater river snail or mussel, gathered from rivers and cooked — most famously boiled…
- Calipeever A prized freshwater fish of Jamaican rivers — the mountain mullet — sweet-fleshed and much…
- Cashew The cashew — in Jamaica both the fleshy 'cashew apple' (a soft, juicy, astringent…
- Cassia A flowering tree of the cassia family, several kinds of which grow in Jamaica — from the…
- Cedar A valued timber tree with fragrant, reddish, easily-worked wood — prized by carvers and…
- Chainy root A woody climbing vine whose root is dug, dried, and boiled to make a bitter tonic drink…
- Chigga The jigger flea — a tiny burrowing insect that digs into the skin, usually of the feet…
- Cling-cling The Jamaican blackbird or grackle — a glossy black, sharp-eyed, noisy bird, named in…
- Coco head The main corm — the round, starchy underground 'head' — of the coco (dasheen/taro) plant…
- Coffee walk A grove or planting of coffee trees, using the rural sense of 'walk' as a cultivated grove…
- Coil A mosquito coil — the green spiral of incense-like repellent you light at dusk and let…
- Common mango The ordinary seedling mango that grows wild and abundant all over Jamaica — small, stringy…
- Coney The Jamaican coney (hutia) — a shy, brown, rabbit-sized rodent that is the island's only…
- Coolie plum A small round fruit (the jujube or Indian plum) with crisp, apple-like flesh and a single…
- Coota A freshwater turtle — the slider or 'cooter' turtle found in Jamaica's rivers and ponds.
- Cotton tree The giant silk-cotton (kapok) tree — the largest and most revered tree in Jamaica, with its…
- Cow A cow — kept in the pen or tethered to graze, valued for milk and beef and a real store of…
- Cow-itch A climbing bean vine whose seed pods are covered in fine hairs that cause a fierce…
- Crab The crab — especially the black land crab, caught in numbers during the rainy season and…
- Crapaud A toad — the big, warty, hopping amphibian (in Jamaica usually the introduced cane toad)…
- Croaking lizard A house gecko — the small, pale, soft-bodied lizard that clings to the walls and ceilings…
- Crocodile The American crocodile — the large reptile that lives in Jamaica's rivers, mangroves, and…
- Custard apple A soft tropical fruit, cousin to the sweetsop and soursop, with knobby greenish-brown skin…
- Dawg A dog — the common yard dog kept for company and to watch the gate.
- Dew The moisture that settles on the grass, leaves, and ground overnight — the 'dew' or 'night…
- Doctor Bird The red-billed streamertail — Jamaica's national bird — a dazzling green-and-black…
- Doctor-fish The surgeonfish or tang — a flat, oval reef fish named for the sharp scalpel-like spine…
- Dog-blood A wild herb used in Jamaican bush medicine, brewed as a tea reputed to 'clean the blood'…
- Donkey The donkey — long the workhorse of rural Jamaica, carrying produce, water, and people, and…
- Donkey-eye A large, hard, glossy brown sea-bean with a dark band around it, like a big eye — the seed…
- Draft A draught of moving air — a cool breeze coming through a door or window.
- Drizzle A light, fine rain — a gentle sprinkle rather than a downpour.
- Dry river A riverbed that runs dry most of the year — a stretch of rocks and sand where a river only…
- Dry spell A stretch of time without rain — a mini-drought that dries out the land, lowers the rivers…
- Dry weather The dry season — the stretch of the year with little rain, when the land bakes, rivers and…
- Duck-ants Termites — the pale, wood-eating insects that build earthen nests and quietly destroy…
- Duppy cherry A wild shrub bearing small cherry-like berries, so named because the fruit is left for the…
- Duppy-gun A common wayside weed whose ripe seed pods burst and shoot out their seeds with a tiny snap…
- East Indian mango A large, aromatic, deep-yellow mango variety with rich, smooth, fibre-free flesh — one of…
- Feed fowl To feed the chickens — the everyday yard chore of scattering corn and scraps for the fowl.
- Fever grass Lemongrass — the tall, fragrant, sharp-scented grass boiled into a soothing 'bush tea'.
- Fire ant The small, aggressive stinging ants whose bite burns like fire and raises an itchy welt —…
- Flood rain Heavy, prolonged rain that causes flooding — the downpour that fills the gullies, bursts…
- Fog Mist or cloud settled low over the ground — thick, damp, grey air that hides the road and…
- Forty-leg A centipede — the many-legged, fast-moving creature whose bite is painful and much feared…
- Fowl A chicken or hen — the everyday yard bird kept for eggs and pot.
- Froggy A frog — the little croaking creature of the ditches, gullies, and damp places, loud in…
- Full moon The moon at its brightest and roundest — and the moonlit night it brings.
- Galliwasp A large, smooth-scaled Jamaican lizard, deeply feared in country folklore.
- Gaulin A heron or egret — the tall, long-necked, long-legged wading bird, usually white, seen…
- Goat fish A small reddish reef fish with a pair of whisker-like barbels under its chin — the 'goat…
- God-horse The praying mantis — the long, slender green insect that holds its front legs together as…
- Grass-quit A tiny seed-eating finch of fields and roadsides, one of the little 'birds' of Jamaican…
- Green lizard The bright green anole lizard that lives outdoors in the trees, bushes, and on the walls…
- Ground-lizard The common brown lizard that darts about on the ground, through leaf litter, and along yard…
- Grouper A large, firm-fleshed reef fish, one of the most valued eating fish in Jamaica — meaty and…
- Grunt-fish A small-to-medium reef fish named for the grunting noise it makes with its throat when…
- Guango The guango or 'rain tree' — a huge, spreading shade tree with a wide umbrella canopy…
- Guinea grass A tall, leafy fodder grass — brought from West Africa (Guinea) — grown and cut to feed…
- Guinea-hen weed A pungent, garlic-smelling medicinal bush (Petiveria alliacea) widely used in Jamaican folk…
- Guinep A small round green fruit that grows in tight bunches on a large tree, with a tight skin…
- Guinep tree The guinep (genip) tree — a tall shade tree that bears tight bunches of small green fruit…
- Gully wash A sudden flash flood that comes rushing down a gully after heavy rain — a fast, powerful…
- Half moon The moon when half of its face is lit, showing a clear semicircle in the sky.
- Hardback beetle A hard-shelled beetle — the tough, clattering brown or black beetles that fly at the lights…
- Hog plum A small, oval yellow wild fruit with a thin, tart-sweet flesh over a large stone, borne on…
- Hog-fish A reef fish with a long, pig-like snout it uses to root in the sand for shellfish — hence…
- Hurricane A hurricane — the great tropical storm that Jamaica braces for each season (June to…
- Jack Spaniard A type of wasp with a slim, pinched waist and a sharp, painful sting, common across Jamaica…
- Jack-fish A common silvery sea fish (of the jack family), often small, sold cheaply and cooked fried…
- Jack-inna-bush A common wild shrub used in Jamaican bush medicine, its leaves brewed into a tea for colds…
- Janga The small freshwater crayfish or shrimp found in Jamaica's rivers, prized as a delicacy.
- Jankro The John Crow, the turkey vulture — the big, black, bald-headed carrion bird that circles…
- Jankro bead The small, glossy, black-and-red seed of a climbing vine — 'jankro' being the John Crow…
- Jimbelin A small, pale, ribbed sour fruit that grows in dense clusters on the tree — the Otaheite…
- John-crow The turkey vulture — the bald-headed black scavenger bird seen circling over the Jamaican…
- Julie mango The most prized eating mango in Jamaica — a small-to-medium, richly sweet, smooth-fleshed…
- June bug A big, clumsy, hard-shelled beetle that appears in numbers around early summer — blundering…
- June plum A tangy green-to-golden tropical fruit (Spondias dulcis) with crisp, sour-sweet flesh…
- Junjo Fungus in its everyday forms — mushroom, mould, or mildew.
- Khus-khus The fragrant root of the vetiver grass, prized for its sweet, earthy scent.
- King-fish A large, long silvery sea fish (the king mackerel) with firm, tasty flesh — a favourite for…
- Land crab A crab that lives on land, in burrows in the ground rather than in the sea — caught for…
- Leaf of life A hardy succulent bush (Bryophyllum pinnatum) famous for sprouting tiny new plantlets from…
- Lightning Lightning — the flash of a tropical storm, often paired with 'tunda' (thunder).
- Lignum vitae The national flower of Jamaica — a small tree (Guaiacum officinale) bearing delicate…
- Logwood A small, thorny tree that shaped Jamaica's history and economy — its dense heartwood yields…
- Macca A thorn, prickle, or spine — the sharp spikes on bushes, cactus, and thorny trees, or one…
- Macca fat A tall, very spiny Jamaican palm and its clustered fruit — a hard round nut with a thin…
- Maga dawg A 'mawga dog' — a skinny, half-starved stray.
- Mahogany The prized dark-red hardwood tree — one of the finest and most famous timbers, long…
- Makka A thorn, prickle, or spine on a plant.
- Mango walk A grove or stand of mango trees, using the rural sense of 'walk' (a cultivated plot of one…
- Marabunta A stinging wasp, feared for its painful sting, that builds mud or paper nests around…
- Maskita A pronunciation variant of 'mosquito' — the biting insect.
- Mawga dog A skinny, half-starved stray dog — and, figuratively, a down-and-out, neglected person, or…
- Milk cow A milk cow — a cow kept for its milk, hand-milked morning and evening and grazed on pasture…
- Mongoose The small, quick, weasel-like animal introduced to Jamaica in the 1800s to control rats and…
- Mongrel A mixed-breed dog of no particular pedigree — the common Jamaican street or yard dog.
- Monkey Monkey — not native to Jamaica but alive in proverb and talk, standing for mischief…
- Moonlight The light of the moon, and by extension a bright moonlit night.
- Morning dew The dew that settles on the grass and leaves overnight and glistens in the early morning…
- Morning star The bright 'star' — actually the planet Venus — that shines low in the east before dawn…
- Mosquito The biting mosquito — a constant tropical nuisance, worst at dusk and through the rainy…
- Mullet A common silvery fish found both in the sea and in river mouths, a popular everyday eating…
- Mus-mus A mouse (and sometimes a small rat) — the little household rodent that raids the kitchen…
- Muss-muss A mouse or a small rat.
- Nanny goat A nanny goat — a female goat, kept for milk, kids, and eventually meat, and a familiar…
- Negro yam One of the common Jamaican yam varieties — a large, firm, white-fleshed yam grown as a…
- Norther A cold, blustery north wind — the wintertime front that sweeps down from the north (often…
- Number eleven A small, plump, intensely sweet mango variety — one of Jamaica's most loved.
- Number eleven mango One of the best-loved named Jamaican mango varieties — the 'Number Eleven', a medium…
- Old wife A reef fish caught and eaten in Jamaica — the 'old wife', a deep-bodied, tough-skinned fish…
- Ooman tongue A large shade tree that bears long, flat, dry seed pods which rattle and chatter noisily in…
- Ortanique A sweet, juicy citrus fruit — a natural cross between an orange and a tangerine — that was…
- Otaheite apple A glossy, deep-pink to crimson pear-shaped fruit (also called the Malay apple or pomerac)…
- Otaheite apple A glossy, deep-red, pear-shaped fruit (Syzygium malaccense) with crisp, mildly sweet white…
- Ovahcast Overcast — of a grey, cloudy sky before rain.
- Pak choi A leafy Chinese cabbage with crisp white stalks and dark-green leaves, long naturalised in…
- Parrot-fish A brightly coloured reef fish with a beak-like mouth, one of the most popular eating fish…
- Pasture Pasture — the open grassland where cattle and goats graze, fenced or common.
- Patoo An owl.
- Pea-dove A small wild dove of fields and bush, named for its habit of feeding on peas and small…
- Peel-neck fowl A chicken of the naked-neck kind, whose neck is bare of feathers — its skin 'peeled' —…
- Peenie-wallie A firefly or glow-worm — the little beetle that flashes its light in the dark of a Jamaican…
- Peeny-wally A firefly or glow-worm — the little insect that flashes with a soft light in the dark…
- Pepper elder A common low, succulent-stemmed Jamaican bush with small heart-shaped leaves, valued in…
- Pimento leaf The aromatic leaf of the pimento (allspice) tree, used both in cooking and as a bush tea.
- Plum rose The rose apple — a pale yellow-green, hollow, crisp fruit that smells and tastes faintly of…
- Poinciana The flamboyant or 'flame tree' — a spreading ornamental tree that bursts into a blaze of…
- Puppy A puppy — a young dog.
- Puss A cat — the ordinary household or yard cat.
- Rain Rain — vital and dramatic in the tropics, from a light 'drizzle' to a 'rain a fall bad'…
- Ram-goat-dash-along A common wild bush used in Jamaican folk medicine, brewed into a 'bush tea' for colds…
- Rat bat The flying mammal — a bat.
- Ratta A rat — the larger rodent that gets into the roof, the field, and the storeroom.
- Razor grass A tall grass with fine, saw-toothed edges sharp enough to slice the skin like a razor if…
- Renta yam A well-known Jamaican yam variety with firm, white flesh, popular in the market and the…
- Robin mango A named Jamaican mango variety — the 'Robin' — a sweet, good-eating mango that holds its…
- Rockstone A stone or a rock.
- Royal palm The tall, elegant palm with a smooth grey trunk and a crown of feathery fronds, lining…
- Sandfly The tiny biting midge that swarms on beaches and near the shore, especially in the evening…
- Sea breeze The cool wind that blows in off the sea, easing the heat of the day along the coast — a…
- Sea cat The octopus.
- Sea cow The manatee — the large, gentle, slow-moving plant-eating sea mammal that lives in…
- Sea-egg The white sea urchin, and especially its orange roe, eaten as a seaside delicacy.
- Search-mi-heart A small creeping wayside weed used in Jamaican bush medicine, brewed as a tea for colds…
- Search-mi-heart A common Jamaican weed used as a bush medicine, its vivid name — 'search mi heart' —…
- Shame-mi-lady The sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica) — a low, prickly creeping weed whose fern-like leaves…
- Shower Shower — a brief fall of rain, and especially the 'sun shower', the odd, brief rain that…
- Single bible The Jamaican name for the aloe vera plant — the thick, spiky succulent whose clear inner…
- Sinkle bible The Jamaican name for the aloe vera plant — the thick, spiky succulent whose bitter…
- Snake doctor The dragonfly — the darting, glittering-winged insect that hovers over water and grass.
- Snook A long, silvery fish with a dark lateral stripe, found around river mouths, lagoons, and…
- Soldier crab The hermit crab — the little crab that has no hard shell of its own and lives inside an…
- Soursop leaf The leaf of the soursop tree, boiled into a bush tea widely drunk in Jamaica as a calming…
- Spidah A spider — the Patois pronunciation of 'spider'.
- Spirit-weed A strongly aromatic low herb (culantro / fitweed) with long saw-toothed leaves and a…
- Sprat A very small silvery fish, fried whole and crisp — bones and all — and eaten as a cheap…
- St Vincent yam A Jamaican yam variety — often said quickly as 'sinvincent' — with a soft, floury white…
- Star apple A round, deep-purple tropical fruit (Chrysophyllum cainito) whose soft, sweet, milky flesh…
- Stinking toe The fruit of the West Indian locust tree (Hymenaea courbaril) — a hard brown pod, shaped…
- Stone A stone or pebble — though in Patois the fuller word 'rockstone' is more usual for a rock.
- Stringy mango A mango full of stringy fibres — the kind you suck rather than slice, working the sweet…
- Sugar ant The tiny ants that swarm anything sweet — appearing as if from nowhere the moment sugar…
- Sun hot The blazing heat of the sun;
- Sun shower Rain falling while the sun is shining — a light shower out of a bright sky.
- Susumber Small, round, green pea-sized berries — also called 'gully bean' — with a distinctive…
- Sweat bee The tiny bee (or bee-like fly) that is drawn to sweat and settles persistently on the skin…
- Sweet cassava The variety of cassava that is low in the toxic compounds and safe to eat after simple…
- Sweet yam A Jamaican yam variety with a soft, moist, faintly sweet white flesh, valued for its tender…
- Sweetie-come-brush-me A small, very sweet Jamaican mango variety with one of the most charming names in the whole…
- Sweetsop A knobbly, pale-green tropical fruit (Annona squamosa) with soft, sweet, custard-like white…
- Tambran Tamarind — the brown pod tree whose sticky, sour-sweet pulp is a Jamaican favourite.
- Tarpon A large, powerful silver fish with big shining scales, found around coasts, harbours, and…
- Thatch palm A palm whose broad, fan-like leaves are the traditional material for thatching roofs, and…
- Trumpet tree A fast-growing tree with big, hand-shaped silvery-backed leaves and hollow, jointed stems…
- Tunda Thunder — the Patois pronunciation of 'thunder', with the 'th' hardened to 't'.
- Tunda showa A thunder shower — a sudden downpour with thunder, the heavy, short-lived storm that rolls…
- Whirlwind A spinning column of wind — a dust devil that rises on a hot, still day, whirling up dust…
- Whistling frog A tiny tree frog whose high, piping whistle fills the Jamaican night, especially after rain…
- White-belly dove A Jamaican dove with a pale, whitish breast and belly — the 'white-belly', one of several…
- Wild cane The tall wild reed or cane that grows in dense thickets along riverbanks and in damp waste…
- Wiss A tough, woody climbing vine ('withe') that hangs from trees and winds through the bush —…
- Yard fowl Literally a free-ranging yard chicken that scratches around the home — tougher and tastier…
- Yard-dog The mixed-breed dog kept in the yard as a guard and companion — not a pedigree pet but a…
- Yellow snake The Jamaican boa — the island's largest native snake, yellowish with dark markings, also…
- Yellowtail The yellowtail snapper — a reef fish with a yellow stripe and yellow tail, one of the most…