Abenaki
See also: abenaki
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From French abénaquis, either from Montagnais ouabanākionek (“people of the eastern country”)[1] or from the Western Abenaki autonym Wôbanaki or an Eastern Abenaki/Penobscot cognate of the same,[2][3] from Algonquin. Ultimately a compound word meaning "people of the east" or "people of the dawn-land", from Proto-Algonquian *wa·panki (“dawn”) + *askyi (“land”).
Pronunciation edit
Proper noun edit
Abenaki
- An Algonquian First People from northeastern North America, mainly Maine and Quebec. [early 18th century][1]
- A complex of Eastern Algonquian lects, originally spoken in what is now Maine, and Quebec, divided into Western Abenaki and Eastern Abenaki (Penobscot). [early 20th century][1]
- (in particular) The Western Abenaki language.
Translations edit
Noun edit
Abenaki (plural Abenakis or Abenaki)
- A member of this Algonquian First People. [early 18th century][1]
Translations edit
Adjective edit
Abenaki (not comparable)
- Related or pertaining to the Abenaki people or language. [early 19th century][1]
- 2008, Toni Morrison, A Mercy, Chatto & Windus, page 37:
- I am to walk left, westward on the Abenaki trail which I will know by the sapling bent into the earth with one sprout growing skyward.
Translations edit
See also edit
References edit
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lesley Brown, editor (1933), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 3
- ^ “Abenaki”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “Abenaki”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Further reading edit
- Ethnologue entry for Western Abenaki, abe
- Ethnologue entry for Eastern Abenaki, aaq (Penobscot, extinct)