squaw

English

Etymology

From Massachusett squàw (“woman”), from Proto-Algonquian *eθkwe·wa (“(young) woman”). Cognate with Abenaki -skwa (“female, wife”), Mohegan-Pequot sqá, Plains Cree iskwêw (“woman”), Ojibwe ikwe (“woman”). In the 1970s, some non-linguists began to claim that the word originally meant “vagina”; this has been discredited. The first English attestation of the word is found in a book called Mourt’s Relation: A Journey of the Pilgrims at Plymouth written in 1622, where the "squa sachim or Massachusets Queen" is mentioned in a journal entry from September 20, 1621.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skwɔː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː

Noun

squaw (plural squaws)

1. (now offensive, ethnic slur) A woman, wife; especially a Native American woman.
   • 1880, The History of Dodge County, Wisconsin, page 405:

     The nominal chief of this tribe was the husband of a lovely squaw.

   • 1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, Flame on the Frontier; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 29:

     "If I ever set eyes on that savage again, I'll kill him. You know that, don't you, you damn squaw?" She shrugged. "Talk's cheap."

   • 1963, Lester del Rey, The Sky Is Falling:

     The Indian maids, of course, turned out to be a few fat old squaws who knew all about white men.

   • 2021 (originally published 2017, adapted 2021), David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Younger Readers, page 180:

     Reporters portrayed her as an “ignorant squaw.” […] Later, a reporter snapped her picture, her face defiantly composed, and a “new and exclusive picture of Mollie Burkhart” was sent around the world.

Usage notes

• Previously used neutrally, the word began to be used as a term of contempt in the late 1800s; it is now generally considered offensive. See the Wikipedia article on the word on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Derived terms

• oldsquaw
• squawberry
• squawbush
• squaw candy
• squaw carpet
• squawdom
• squaw dress
• squawfish
• squaw flower
• Squaw Grove
• squaw huckleberry
• squawlike
• squaw man
• squaw mint
• squawroot
• squaw tea
• Squaw Valley
• squaw vine, squawvine (Mitchella repens)
• squawweed
• squaw winter

Translations

a woman, wife; especially a Native American woman

• Bulgarian: индианка f (indianka)
• Esperanto: skvo
• French: squaw (fr) f
• Polish: squaw (pl) f
• Russian: скво (ru) f (skvo)

French

Etymology

From English squaw.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skwo/

Noun

squaw f (plural squaws)

1. squaw (not pejorative in French), Native American woman

   Synonym: Amérindienne

   • 1873, Jules Verne, Le Pays des fourrures:

     Ces chefs, au nombre d'une douzaine, n’avaient point amené leurs femmes, malheureuses « squaws » qui ne s’élèvent guère au-dessus de la condition d’esclaves.

     These chiefs, who numbered a dozen, had not brought their wives, unfortunate “squaws” who rise hardly above the condition of slaves.

Further reading

• “squaw”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012