The word "zombie" derives from the African "nzambi" (spirit or ghost), but it was transformed profoundly during the transatlantic slave trade. In Haiti it became embedded in Vodou culture, where zombies were often criminals drugged and enslaved by bokors (sorcerers) rather than supernatural beings.
The concept has diverse roots across world mythology. Welsh legend speaks of the Cauldron of Rebirth from the Mabinogi, which revived the dead but kept them mute and benevolent — a striking contrast to the flesh-eating archetype we know today. The modern zombie was largely shaped by George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), which established the flesh-eating, virus-spread undead horde in popular culture.
The term "virus" itself was not scientifically formalised until 1898, when microbiologist Martinus Beijerinck described tobacco mosaic virus. Before that, the line between infection, curse, and supernatural possession was deliberately blurred — a tension that zombie fiction has exploited ever since.
Early documented cases include Petar Blagojevic, reported in a 1725 Viennese gazette as "the very first person accused of being a vampire," whose exhumed body was staked with hawthorn to prevent resurrection. The boundary between vampire and zombie lore remained porous for centuries, and still informs the undead genre today.