Zombie

Most likely origin is from voodoo and other religious or magical practices of West African and Caribbean origin, where the word describes a dead person that is brought back to life, but in a ghoulish, sub-standard format, mute and without any brains or free will, usually for nefarious purposes. Synonyms are the 'undead' or the 'walking dead'. Many African languages have similar words e.g. 'nzumbe' in Bantu languages means ghost. The first known usage for zombie is from c. 1871, but its figurative use to describe any listless person is from the 1930s.