Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun White shell beads used as wampum.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Strings of (originally white) wampum formerly used as tokens of value by the American In dians, and by the whites, especially in trade with the Indians.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete wampum

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small cylindrical beads made from polished shells and fashioned into strings or belts; used by certain Native American peoples as jewelry or currency

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Massachusett.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From a Narragansett word, from wap ‘white’ + umpe ‘string’ + -ag plural suffix.

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Examples

Comments

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  • See wampum.

    October 22, 2008