Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a derog. term for a black man; also found as a generic and used by blacks self-referentially .

1647–50		R. Ligon Hist. of the Island of Barbadoes (1673) 50: I was struck mute, and poor Sambo kept out of the Church.
1704		Boston News-Letter 2 Oct. 2/2: There is a Negro man taken up supposed to be Runaway from his Master [...] calls himself Sambo [DA].
1745		Virginia Gazette 16 May 4/2: Ran away from the Subscriber’s Quarter [...] the following Negro’s, viz. Sambo, [...] Aaron, [...] Berwick [DA].
1799		F. Reynolds Laugh When You Can in Sporting Mag. Mar. XIII 354/2: Sambo [...] is waiting to conduct you to your husband.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome IV 222: His steward was a scoundrel Sambo [...] A true Barbadian.
1824		London Courier 15 Mar. n.p.: Remember what became of Sambo John [...] and his party, who were hanged.
1831		‘Gallery of 140 Comicalities’ Bell’s Life in London 24 June 1/2: O, Misse, your water so dam hot, you scald poor Sambo!
1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 30: Sambo slips the halter off in the manger, meets massa there, and is sold a second time ag’in.
1844		Daily Southern Cross (NZ) 10 Feb. 3: A young Sambo lately came from Preston for service.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Sept. 4/2: ‘Sambo, of woolly nob,’ said he, ‘be pleased to stow your chaff’.
1846		T.B. Thorpe Mysteries of the Backwoods 188: Sambo, however, soon dropped his axe.
1853		Geelong Advertiser 7 Jan. 1/5: The slang of ‘Ethiopian serenaders’ for once gives place to thoughts and language racy of the soil, and we need not say how refresh[ing] it is to be separated for a season from the conventional Sambo of the modern stage.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 76: Once more Sambo made his attack, butting with his woolly head.
1861		R.F. Burton City of the Saints 191: The Kafir [will] call himself not Sambo, but Mr. Scott.
1871		Sportsman (London) ‘Notes on News’ 25 Feb. 4/1: One Sambo [...] could not believe in the possibility of there being no work in heaven with which to occupy the black folks.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 118: In the West Indies and the United States, the term has gradually come to be applied to all colored persons alike, and Sambo, as it is generally written, denotes simply a negro.
1879		C. Dickens Jr. Dict. London n.p.: A music hall, where Dolly Dripping, the cook, in a draggled old print gown and a huge (natural) moustache; and Corporal Coldmutton, of the Guards [...] make simple fun for the edification of Quashie and Sambo, whose shining ebony faces stand jovially out even against the grimy blackness of the walls.
1882		Taranaki Herald (NZ) 11 Mar. n.p.: ‘The darkey’s hour is just before the dawn,’ remarked Sambo.
1883		Bristol Magpie 19 May 6/2: It is not every big story-teller that makes so comical an escape as Sambo did.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Sept. 14/1: But, recollect, the parson brave, / Who scatters tracts and preaches, / Sends Sambo to an early grave / By putting him in breaches.
1890		Seattle post-Intelligencer (WA) 13 July 14/3: The Zambo rode in all possible directions [...] dragging the unfortunate man behind.
1894		C. Harpur Adventures of Lady Harpur I 23: Put down your hand feel Sambo’s prick fucking me.
1897		Columbia Herald (TN) 24 Dec. 1/6: Long and hard did Sambo work.
1898		Regiment 21 May 117/1: ‘Ah, Sambo, You are an honest, faithful fellow, I'll give you a drink.’ ‘With all my heart, sar,’ says Sambo, ‘with all dis child’s heart’.
1901		Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City) 5 Oct. 4/3: No longer was ‘Nellie Gray’ a slave, nor Sambo a funny coon.
1908		Amer. Mag. 65 Apr. 599–604: An’ poor Sambo or Epaminondas Beecher Roosevelt, as th’ case may be, no longer sings th’ sintimintal plantation ballad iv ‘Give me me gin,’ but ‘Away away th’ bowl’.
1912		N.Y. Tribune 19 May 40/2: Behind him [...] bounded the huge ebony figure of Zambo, our devoted negro.
1915		F. Garrett diary 12 May 🌐 Dusky Sambos [i.e. Zouaves] in blue with guilt [sic] or yellow facings, and a sort of lavender taboosh or fez.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 315: And another one: Black Beast Burned in Omaha. Ga. A lot of Deadwood Dicks in slouch hats and they firing at a sambo strung up on a tree with his tongue.
1934		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana II 16: Sambo, as the man was called, was a big six-foot-two buck nigger, with perhaps the largest prick in the United States and the reputation of being able to fuck more times in a night than any other nigger in the South.
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 127: It’s the inconsistency of discrimination that gets the poor Sambo down.
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] He smiled [...] at Joey’s eyes opening up like Sambo himself.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: I can see you now – nipping off to chapel with a little Sambo clinging on each hand.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 113: If you call a Maori Hori it’s just like calling an American negro Sambo, or an Australian aboriginal Jacky. The white man who says it means well, but it’s patronising.
1977		A. Bleasdale Who’s Been Sleeping in my Bed 119: Bloody Vera, I wouldn’t mind if she’d found a Sambo she could trust, the stupid bitch.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 478: Bobbies already get taunted, add to that the fact that he’s black, and he might be getting ‘Sambo’ and other things said to him.
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 341: ‘‘What’re you lookin’ at, nigger? That’s right. I’m talking to you, Sambo’.
1999		Guardian 30 July 18: Taki-George twice referred in his column to a black man by the appellation ‘sambo’.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 352: Noxious negrophile. [...] Pro-Sambo, anti-Uncle Sam.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 84: The first five ‘coons,’ ‘jigaboos,’ ‘tar babies,’ and ‘Sambos’ were free. After that, it was three dollars an epithet.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 246: ‘You making demands on me, Sambo? I am the man in charge, boy’.

2. a direct term of address to any coloured person.

1684		T. Tryon Friendly Advice To The Gentlemen-Planters of The East And West Indies 146: Come hither, Sambo.
1816		M. Lewis Journal of a West-India Proprietor (1834) 23 Mar. 229: Soon after his accident, the overseer meeting the sufferer – ‘Why Sambo,’ he exclaimed, ‘where’s your nose?’.
1844		Daily Southern Cross (NZ) 10 Feb. 3: Well, Sambo, what sort of place [i.e. employment] have you got?
1858		S. Aus. Advertiser (Adelaide) 14 July n.p.: Sambo, you blacka tied, Sambo, why you betray dat secret I told you.
1862		S. Aus. Advertiser (Adelaide) 13 Oct. 3/6: Brother jonathan’s Appeal to Brother Sambo. Now, Sambo, darn it - Brother! There, I guess that ought to please you.
1867		Grey River Argus (N.Z.) 10 Oct. 3/3: Ah, Sambo, you are an honest fellow.
1875		M.D. Landon Eli Perkins 107: Oh, Sambo!
1880		Taranaki Herald (NZ) 3 Nov. 4/1: ‘I say, Sambo, less us jine de baseball club.’ ‘What for, nigger?’.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 20 May 2/4: ‘Sambo, whar you git dat watch you wared to meeting last Sunday?’.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 23 Aug. 2/3: A negro appeared before a magistrate [...] ‘You can go now, Sambo [etc]’.
1891		Marlborough Express (NZ) 7 Jan. 4/1: Well, Sambo, how do you like your new place?
1899		C. Chesnutt ‘Mars Jeems’s Nightmare’ in Conjure Woman 81: ‘W’at’s yo’ name, Sambo?’ ‘My name ain’ Sambo,’ ’spon’ de noo nigger.
1904		‘O. Henry’ Cabbages and Kings 195: ‘Hold on, Sambo,’ says I, ‘savve English?’.
1924		H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 126: The negro spoke up, saying, ‘Good evening , Pat.’ ‘Good morning, Sambo,’ replied his fellow.
1930		Sun. Times (Perth, WA) 27 July 7/6: A teacher was explaining to a class of nigger boys what defense, Defeat and Detail meant [...] she said ‘Now Sambo, give me a sentence with those three words in’.
1936		Truth (Brisbane) 2 Feb. 42/1: [of a Russian] ‘Ha! Ha! Ha! You deserve a swim for that. Sambo!’ laughed Nancy [...] ‘Nanzy, you bad one!’ giggled the beautiful, olive-skinned foreigner.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 49: Well Sambo, you sure got your black-Nigger ass in a sling.
1972		J. Speight ‘Women’s Lib and Bournemouth’ Till Death Us Do Part [TV script] alf: (pointing to Pakistani) What about Sambo?
1979		P. Hamill Deadly Piece 155: Just for your information, Sambo, I feel nothing of the kind.
1997		(con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 89: Wake up, Sambo. We’re fucking here.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 41: Y’all should think of something better than darkie if you hope to get under m’skin [...] Try Sambo, or coon.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 8: Where’s the drugs, Sambo? Where’s the fucking drugs?

3. (US/W.I.) a darker mixed-race skin colour; a person who is the child of a mixed-race person and a black person.

1816		M. Lewis Journal of a West-India Proprietor (1834) 6 Jan. 79: Why had he not married Mary Wiggins? He seemed quite shocked at the very idea. ‘Oh, massa, me black, Mary Wiggins sambo; that not allowed’. [Ibid.] 15 Jan. 106: The offspring of a white man and a black woman is a mulatto; the mulatto and black produce a sambo.
1828		Marly; Planter’s Life in Jamaica 94: These gangs consisted of Samboes, Mulattoes, a couple of Mustees.
1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 246: A mulatto looks down upon a sambo, that is, half mulatto half negro, while a sambo in his turn looks down upon a nigger.
1860		Wkly Standard (Raleigh, NC) 14 Nov. 4/2: The owner of a Jamaican property was always lying on a sofa, drinking sangaree, and swearing at Sambo, a fine Mulatto youth.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 118: The Spanish word Zambo, originally meaning ‘bandy-legged,’ was by the Spaniards first applied to the offspring of a negro and a mulatto, and afterwards, in the South American colonies, to the child of a negro and an Indian woman.
1890		Dly Morn. Astorian (OR) 11 June 1/4: Sambo, offspring of mulatto father [in Lima, Peru].
1913		H. De Lisser Jane’s Career (1971) 12: A practised eye would have pronouced Celestina to be a ‘sambo’, or one-fourth white.
1927		H. Thomas West Indian Policeman 367: He was not black, but of the shade of colour known in Jamaica as ‘sambo’.
1991		L.E. Adams Jam. Patois 61: Sambo: the colour between black and brown; someone who is a cross between a mulatto (brown) and a black.

4. attrib. use of sense 3.

[1827		Hamel, Obeah Man I 60: This sambo-coloured man was tall and well proportioned].
1919		H. De Lisser Revenge 53/2: You get your commoness from you’ brown mother [...] You sambo slut!
1939		A. Durie One Jamaica Gal 9: Icilda was welcome to him! For herself she preferred a sambo man with knotted muscles and white teeth.
1943		C. Thompson These My People 57: The front room was occupied with a sambo girl who ‘played’ with a Chinaman.
1953		R. Mais Hills were Joyful Together (1966) 8: A pretty sambo girl.
1990		L. Goodison Baby Mother and King of Swords 22: She was such a pretty girl with her smooth sambo colouring.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 228: So he’s blabbering on about [...] how the Sambo-boy’s auld man sent a letter to the Home Secretary.

5. a Sudanese soldier.

1902

Falkirk Herald 1 Jan. 8/2: In May 1884, ‘Sambo’, the equivalent of ‘Tommy Atkins’ Soudanese, was called upon, and a first battalion of blacks was raised at Souakim.

6. (US black) an obsequious black person.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 252: Sambo Obsequious black person (derogatory).

7. a general attrib. use, pertaining to black people or culture.

1951		Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 7: Comics like Groucho Marx joined columnist Walter Winchell’s tirade against Lapidus, Sambo (Negro) and kindred dialects.
1957		C. MacInnes City of Spades (1964) 35: ‘Shake hands with me, my name is Mr Ronson Lighter.’ And he let off his silly sambo laugh.