Case file · Folklore / legend
The first 'zombi' in print, Guadeloupe
Pierre-Corneille Blessebois's satirical tale 'Le Zombi du Grand Pérou', set in Guadeloupe and published in 1697, is the earliest known printed use of the word zombi.
1697 CE · 16.00, -61.73 · status: official
The account
In the story a planter's wife is tricked into believing she can become invisible like a zombi. It shows the word was already current among French Caribbean colonists and the enslaved in the 17th century.