From their earliest contact with traders and explorers, American Indians borrowed foreign words, often to describe things not previously encountered. In this way,
Russian was the source of the Alaskan
Yupik word for "cat" and an
Athabaskan word for "bullets." Native Canadian groups adopted
French terms still in use, and southwestern groups in what is now the U.S. borrowed numerous
Spanish terms.
The language exchange went both ways. Today, thousands of
place names across North America have Indian origins—as do hundreds of everyday
English words.
Many of these "loan words" are nouns from the Algonquian languages that were once widespread along the Atlantic coast. English colonists, encountering unfamiliar plants and animals—among them moose, opossum, and skunk—borrowed Indian terms to name them. Pronunciations generally changed, and sometimes the newcomers shortened words they found difficult; for instance, "pocohiquara" became "hickory."
Some U.S. English Words with Indian Origins
anorak from the Greenlandic Inuit "annoraq"
bayou from the Choctaw "bayuk"
chipmunk from the Ojibwa "ajidamoon," red squirrel
hickory from the Virginia Algonquian "pocohiquara"
hominy from the Virginia Algonquian "uskatahomen"
igloo from the Canadian Inuit "iglu," house
kayak from the Alaskan Yupik "qayaq"
moccasin from the Virginia Algonquian
moose from the Eastern Abenaki "mos"
papoose from the Narragansett "papoos," child
pecan from the Illinois "pakani"
powwow from the Narragansett "powwaw," shaman
quahog from the Narragansett "poquauhock"
squash from the Narragansett "askutasquash"
succotash from the Narragansett "msickquatash," boiled corn
tepee from the Sioux "tipi," dwelling
toboggan from the Micmac "topaghan"
tomahawk from the Virginia Algonquian "tamahaac"
totem from the Ojibwa "nindoodem," my totem
wampum from the Massachusett "wampumpeag"
wigwam from the Eastern Abenaki "wik'wom"
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