![]() (The 1973 movie The Sting, set in the 1930s, had a horse named Mojo running in one of the races.)Īn unambiguous use appears in the St. Woods King with his horse, Mojo, were second and third. ![]() Nichols on Russell Alger’s Fairchild and Mr. White on his own pony, Leap Year, was presented with the trophy in the Gentleman’s Hack event, his horse showing the best style in a free open walk, square trot and easy canter. But one never knows while the owners of the horse are indisputably white, Black men and women were commonly employed in stables and as trainers, and the name could have come from a Black stable hand: Given the context, a white, upper-class horse show, it is may be unconnected to the Black term and the similarity coincidental. I found this appearance of Mojo in the name of a horse in the Cleveland Plain Dealer from 17 September 1921. ![]() Mojo first appears in print in the 1920s but is certainly older in oral use.Įarly print appearances of mojo in English tend to fall into two categories, that of Black confidence men selling magical charms to the gullible elements of the Black community (in this, the Black community is no different than any other ethnic group only the terminology and branding of the fake nostrums and woo changes with the ethnic group), and in the titles of jazz songs, where it acquires the sense of life force, good luck, and sexual prowess. Cognates appear to be the Gullah moco, meaning witchcraft or magic, and the Fula moco’o, meaning medicine man. The word’s origins are obscure, but it is likely of African origin. Mojo first appears in Black English, associated with voodoo and other folkloric beliefs.
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