...pouncing on a thread from jmh's dictionary topic: gumbo and okra - the words are cognates, if you will. However, now gumbo has expanded to include okra and other ingredients, as y'all mentioned.

http://www.bartleby.com/cgi-bin/texis/webinator/sitesearch/?query=gumbo+AND+okra&db=db&cmd=context&id=38d47e8443b#hit1

and

the American Heritage Dictionary, whose link I lost due to obsolete computer power - yet for which my lingusitics professor wrote the preface. So it still rules in my non-virtual book :-)