A vegetable out of which a rich soup, also called gumbo, is made.
1810. It [gumbo] is made by boiling ocroc until it is tender, and seasoning it with a little bit of fat bacon.—F. Cuming, ‘Sketches of a Tour,’ p. 311 (Pittsburgh).
1819. The dish of dishes in New Orleans is a French dish, called gumbo. It is a kind of save-all, salmagundi soup, made of the refuse ends of every variety of flesh, mingled with rice, and seasoned with chopped sassafras, or with okra, a vegetable esculent.—Henry C. Knight (‘Arthur Singleton’), ‘Letters from the South and West,’ p. 130 (Boston, 1824).
1829. I observed the country people eating with great relish, along with a very nice mess of stuff, which I took to be curry, and envied them accordingly. But I found it was called gumbo, a sort of gelatinous vegetable soup, of which, under other instruction, I learnt afterwards to understand the value.—Basil Hall, ‘Travels in North America,’ iii. 332.
1832. In Louisiana, gumbo, a compound soup, is much used, and at New Orleans it is sold in the streets.—S. G. Goodrich, ‘System of Universal Geography,’ p. 260 (Boston). (Italics in the original.)
1833. [She] resolutely refused, through life, to eat gumbo-soup.—James Hall, ‘Legends of the West,’ p. 130 (Phila.). (Italics in the original.)
1833. His wife was an excellent manager, made charming gumbo soup, and could interpret dreams.—Id., p. 154. (Italics in the original.)
1845. At St. Peter’s [Ill.] there is a large commerce carried on between the whites and redskins, for beads and whiskey, in exchange for skins and gumbo.—Bangor Mercury, n.d.
1854. I lay the fattening gumbo to my soul that it is because I am wont to squeeze out something “good or great.”—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ iv. 20.
1859. Gumbo. The Southern name for what is called in the North Okra, the pod of the Hibiscus esculentus.—Bartlett.
