Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1830s
Chipmunk
from ajidamoo
- Meaning
- A small striped ground squirrel of North America.
- Source word
- ajidamoo
- Route into English
- Ojibwe *ajidamoo* (head-first, for its descent down trees) → English via French traders. The English spelling is a folk-etymology reshaping with *chip* and *munk* to suggest sound and size.
- Arrived
- 1830s
From Indigenous languages
A loose group: Nahuatl, Taino, Algonquian, Guugu Yimithirr, and others. Colonial contact produced many loans; the speakers were often systematically dispossessed of the land the loanwords described.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.