Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1630s
Wampum
from wampumpeag
- Meaning
- Small beads made from clamshells, used by Eastern Woodland peoples as currency and in record-keeping.
- Source word
- wampumpeag
- Route into English
- Narragansett/Massachusett *wampumpeag* ("white beads-strung") → shortened in English in the 17th century → figuratively "money" in informal 19th-century US slang ("big wampum").
- Arrived
- 1630s
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.