Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1840s
Teepee
from thípi
- Meaning
- A conical Plains-Indian dwelling.
- Source word
- thípi
- Route into English
- Lakota/Dakota *thípi* ("dwelling," from *thí*, to dwell) → English via 19th-century accounts of the Great Plains. Often confused with the domed Eastern wigwam, a different structure.
- Arrived
- 1840s
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.
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