• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Language / Where Did the Word Maroon Come From and What Does Maroon Mean?

Where Did the Word Maroon Come From and What Does Maroon Mean?

July 25, 2020 by Karen Hill

Maroon is a dark reddish colour or a chestnut flavour.

As a verb, the word means “to be put ashore on a deserted island” or “to abandon someone in isolation.”

However, the obscure use of maroon as a reference to slaves who escaped or were set free in the seventeenth century is lesser known.

These runaway slaves lived in the mountains of the West Indies.

At times they fought guerrilla wars against the Spanish, French, and British colonists.

Jamaican maroons were among the first slaves to be proclaimed free by the British in 1715.

Some were brought to Canada where they settled in Preston near Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, but the resettlement didn’t go well, so most were relocated to Sierra Leone in West Africa, near where their ancestors had originally been captured.

Maroon, as it is used in reference to runaway slaves, is a corruption of the Spanish word cimmaron, which means “wild, untamed.”

Over time it came to signify lost in the wilderness and gained its association with desert islands from stories such as the novel Robinson Crusoe by the English writer Daniel Defoe (1660-1731).

Related Facts

  • What was the European Age of Exploration?
  • Which Explorers First Explored the Continents of the World?
  • Who Were the First Explorers of Ancient Civilization?
  • History of Newspapers
  • Where does the term “Tory” come from and What does Tory mean in Irish?
  • Were the slaves who fought in the American Revolutionary War freed after it was over?

Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Why Do People Throw Coins Into Fountains and Make a Wish and Where Did the Superstition Come From?
Next Post: What Is the Difference Between Bickering and Dickering and What Do the Words Mean? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy