Abenaki
See also: abenaki
English
Alternative forms
- (Eastern Abenaki) Abnaki
- (Western Abenaki) Wabnaki
- (Abenaki confederacy) Waponahki
Etymology
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
- (US) IPA(key): /ˌæbəˈnæ.ki/, /ˌɑbəˈnɑki/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Proper noun
Abenaki
- An Algonquian First People from northeastern North America, mainly Maine and Quebec. [early 18th century][1]
- 2000, Jan Albers, Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 57:
- The Abenaki could also be brave warriors, but like most hunter-gatherers they probably did not go looking for trouble.
-
- 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
language
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Noun
Abenaki (plural Abenakis or Abenaki)
- A member of this Algonquian First People. [early 18th century][1]
Translations
member of the Algonquian people
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Adjective
Abenaki (not comparable)
- Related or pertaining to the Abenaki people or language. [early 19th century][1]
Translations
See also
- Wiktionary’s coverage of Abenaki terms
References
- 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 (2001–2023), “Abenaki”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Further reading
- Ethnologue entry for Western Abenaki, abe
- Ethnologue entry for Eastern Abenaki, aaq
(Penobscot, extinct)
Anagrams
- ikebana, in a bake