Emily in Fort Worth, Texas, asks why a peanut is called goober, and why her sister uses the same word for homemade peanut butter and jelly swirled together. Goober comes from African languages, apparently including Bantu languages of Central and southern Africa, carried into English by enslaved Africans in the 1600s and 1700s and later widespread in the American South. The word also became a mild insult for an unsophisticated person or peanut farmer, though in Emily’s family, little goober may be more a pet name than a put-down. Smucker’s Goober, including Goober Stripes, helps explain the peanut-butter-and-jelly use. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Why Is a Peanut Called a “Goober”?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, my name is Emily Kirkland. I’m calling from Fort Worth, Texas.
Hi, Emily. Welcome to the show.
Hello, Emily.
My question is about the word goober. I looked it up in the dictionary, and it says that it’s the word that black people back in George Washington Carver’s time used for peanuts. But my sister also uses it as a word for peanut butter and jelly mixed together.
So like the kind that you buy in the store where they’re both in the same jar or when she puts it together herself in like a swirl in a bowl? She puts it together herself. Peanut butter and jelly mixed together called goober.
I wonder if that’s a brand name.
Interesting, maybe. Because you’re right. The word goober itself for peanut is really interesting. It goes back to actually a language from Central and South Africa. And people who were enslaved and brought over here in the 1600s and 1700s used that to apply it to peanuts here in this country. So you’re right about the history of it. And there is a product called Goober.
Aha.
Yes, made by Smuckers. It’s kind of candy. Well, not just that, but there’s a jar that you can buy that has peanut butter and jelly together in the jar. It’s made by Smuckers, and it is called Goober. That’s the name of it.
Yeah. Goober Stripes is one of the variants. So maybe she’s just generalizing from the product in the store and making her own at home.
Oh. And then she also uses it as a nickname for me.
Well, that’s not nice. Because that’s a longstanding insult. Because what happened was, so the slaves brought it from a variety of African languages to the United States, and then it became the term for peanut, widespread in the American South. And then it became the term that you would refer to the farmers that raised those peanuts, and it was meant as a derogatory term. That means kind of insulting, kind of treating them like they were unsophisticated or didn’t have any kind of class and education, and then from there, it became a little more generalized insult to just somebody that you wanted to put down. They’re a goober. And not completely offensive, not like the worst ever, but not nice.
Is that the way she uses it, Emily?
She calls me a little goober.
Maybe that’s more of a pet term because you’re small like a peanut.
Actually, I’m 5’2″.
Okay, not small at all.
Okay. Well, what you need to do is ask her next time she makes some goober to make you one too because they’re yummy, right? Goober sandwiches, yeah?
Sounds good.
Actually, I make it too.
Okay.
Very good. You do. And so what do you say to her when she calls you a goober?
I call her goobel.
Goobel.
Goobel and goober.
Right. Goobel is like the superlative form of goober, like even more goobery. Emily, thank you so much for giving us a call. We really appreciate it.
Thanks.
All right. Take care now.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye, Emily.
There’s a nice history there, right? It’s connected to an unfortunate part of American history, one of the worst black marks on our record, right? The slave trade, but there are a number of words like the juke and jukebox that we are pretty sure came into English from Africans.
Yes, yes.
Which is really interesting stuff.
Yeah, a few food words like goober, like yam, and okra.
Okra, that’s right. All of those come from African languages.
Fried okra.
Yeah. With cornmeal batter.
Oh my gosh.
Cornmeal batter. Is it lunchtime?
Yes.
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I remember this phone call. It’s been almost a decade, and I’m still just as in love with the English language as I was then. I was so happy to have a chance to be on this show. My father loaded several seasons of it onto my first MP3, and I listened to them almost every day. I’m glad to know that I can always come back and listen to them again.