Jumbo

Anything that is very large or over-sized, dates from the late 19th century and derives from a famous elephant called Jumbo that was resident at London Zoo from 1865 to 1882. Jumbo was one of the largest elephants ever seen and regularly gave rides to children. Jumbo was sold to Barnum & Bailey’s Circus in America in 1882 amid a huge outcry in Britain and was sadly killed three years later in a railway accident. During his relatively short time in America, Jumbo became hugely popular and prompted Thomas Edison to name one of his new electric dynamos Jumbo in 1884. Since then, variations like, jumbo-sized, jumbo-packs etc have been spawned. In the 1960s, jumbo jets arrived and cemented the word into the language even more. The original London Zookeeper chose the name Jumbo because it reminded him of a similar word in Zulu that meant big parcel, which the elephant certainly was. Jumbo in this sense has no etymological connection with mumbo jumbo.