squaw
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Massachusett squàw (“woman”), from Proto-Algonquian *eθkwe·wa (“(young) woman”). Cognate with Abenaki -skwa (“female, wife”), Mohegan-Pequot sqá, Cree iskwew / ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ (iskeyw, “woman”), Ojibwe ikwe (“woman”). In the 1970s, some non-linguists began to claim that the word originally meant "vagina"; this has been discredited.[1] The first recorded version of the word was found in a book called Mourt’s Relation: A Journey of the Pilgrims at Plymouth written in 1622. The term was not used in a derogatory fashion but spoke of the “squa sachim or Massachusets Queen” in the September 20, 1621 journal entry.[2]
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /skwɔː/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː
Noun
[edit]squaw (plural squaws)
- (now offensive, ethnic slur) A woman, wife; especially a Native American woman.
- 1963, Lester del Rey, The Sky Is Falling:
- There was nothing said about romance and beauteous Indian maids, but Dave filled that in himself. He would need the money when he and Bertha got married, too, and all that healthy outdoor living was just what the doctor would have ordered. The Indian maids, of course, turned out to be a few fat old squaws who knew all about white men. The outdoor living developed into five months of rain, hail, sleet, blizzard, fog and constant freezing in tractors while breathing the healthy fumes of diesels.
Usage notes
[edit]Previously used neutrally, the word began to be used as a term of contempt in the late 1800s; it is now generally considered offensive.[3] See Squaw § Historical usage on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Ives Goddard, The True History of the Word Squaw, in Indian Country News (April 1997), page 17A
- ^ The Word Squaw: Offensive or Not?, indiancountrytoday.com (archived)
- ^ Rina Torchinksy (2022 February 23) “The U.S. looks to replace a derogatory name used hundreds of times on federal lands”, in Race[1], NPR, retrieved 2022-02-23
French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]squaw f (plural squaws)
- 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.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Further reading
[edit]- “squaw”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
- English terms borrowed from Massachusett
- English terms derived from Massachusett
- English terms derived from Proto-Algonquian
- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɔː
- Rhymes:English/ɔː/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English offensive terms
- English ethnic slurs
- English terms with quotations
- en:People
- en:Native Americans
- French terms derived from English
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French terms spelled with W
- French feminine nouns
- French terms with quotations