abenaki
/ˌæbəˈnæ.ki/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.73 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A member of an Algonquian First People from northeastern North America, mainly Maine and Quebec.
name
A complex of Eastern Algonquian lects, originally spoken in what is now Maine, and Quebec, divided into Western Abenaki and Eastern Abenaki (Penobscot).
name
The Western Abenaki language.
adj
Related or pertaining to the Abenaki people or language.
Example Sentences
- "The Abenaki could also be brave warriors, but like most hunter-gatherers they probably did not go looking for trouble."
- "The manuscript was written in 1750 by Father Joseph Aubery, a Jesuit priest from France assigned to the Saint-François-de-Sales Roman Catholic mission from 1709 until he died in 1756. It's one of the few and earliest documents available in Aln8ba8dwaw8gan, the Abenaki language."
- "I am to walk left, westward on the Abenaki trail which I will know by the sapling bent into the earth with one sprout growing skyward."
Etymology
From French abénaquis, either from Montagnais ouabanākionek (“people of the eastern country”) or from the Western Abenaki autonym Wôbanaki (whence also the English calque Dawnland) or an Eastern Abenaki/Penobscot cognate of the same, from Algonquin. Ultimately a compound word meaning "people of the east" or "people of the dawn-land", from Proto-Algonquian *wa·panki (“dawn”) + *askyi (“land”).
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: abénaquis, ouabanākionek, -
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌæbəˈnæ.ki/
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Wiktionary’s coverage of Abenaki terms
Frequently Paired Words
Wiktionary’s coverage of Abenaki terms