smokum
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Verb[edit]
smokum
- (dated, humorous, now offensive) To smoke.
- 1896, F J Stimsom, King Noanett: A Story of Old Virginia and the Massachusetts Bay, page 254:
- "Givum dinner; smokum pipe," was all that we could get out of Quatchett.
- 1968, Joan Baez, Daybreak, page 17:
- We ran up to him and danced around him like Indians and then stopped and puffed on a big stick and handed it to him saying, "Smokum peace pipe."
- 2003, Stephen Brown, John F Sherry, editors, Time, Space and the Market: Retroscapes Rising, page 127:
- Historyland... sought to present a historical image of Native Americans ... different from the "Ugh! We-smokum peace-pipe" images once presented at Knott's Berry Farms.
- 2004, Henry Bailey Stevens, Johnny Appleseed And Paul Bunyan: A Play of American Folklore in Three Acts with Prologue, page 47:
- He say tree, "Be good Indian." He say Indian, "Be good tree." We swear by Great Spirit. We smokum pipe.
Usage notes[edit]
- Part of the limited vocabulary used in the synthetic language apparently intended to illustrate language difficulties between Native Americans and the European colonists. This limited vocabulary is part of a stereotype that could be viewed as derogatorily portraying Native Americans, and particularly used in the context of smoking a peace pipe.