sannup

sannup

English

Etymology

From Penobscot senabe (“man”); compare Abenaki sanôba (“man”).

Noun

sannup (plural sannups)

1. (US) A male Native American, especially a married one; a brave.
   • 1736, Thomas Prince, Nathan Hale (editor), A Chronological History of New-England, in the Form of Annals, 1826, New Edition, Cummings, Hilliard, and Company, page 347,

     Chickatabot (the chief Sachem of the Massachusetts) comes with his sannups and squaws (that is, married men and their wives) to Boston, presents the governor with a hogshead of Indian corn.

   • 1898, Edith Robinson, A Little Puritan Rebel, L. C. Page & Company, page 117,

     With this company, Miantonomo and his sachems dined, while the sannups were entertained hard by, in the inn recently built by Goodman Samuel Coles.

   • 1941, Marguerite Allis, Not Without Peril, G. P. Putnam's Sons, page 231,

     Or rather, he obliged Miguen to do so, for the limping sannup could not pursue the quarry.

2. (US, Maine, colloquial) A mischievous male child.[1]

See also

• sachem
• squaw

References

• sannup in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

1. 1975, John Gould, Lillian Ross, Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads & Wazzats, page 241—Sannup From Abnaki Indian, loosely used throughout Maine for a boy-child and usually a mischievous one: "You sannup, you! Stop plaguing that poor cat!" The real sannup was an unfledged warrior, perhaps a junior sachem.

Anagrams

• Pannus, pannus, unsnap