wampum
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈwɒmpəm/
ipa: /ˈwɑmpəm/
Forms: form: wampums
form: wampum
form: wompam
Etymology: Clipping of wampumpeag (“wampum”), probably borrowed from Massachusett wampompeage (“string of white beads used as money”).
Compare peag (“string of white beads used as money”), also a clipping of wampumpeag.
Sense 3 (“common kingsnake”) is from the similarity of the snake’s appearance to a string of wampum.
Cognates
Penobscot wάpαpəyak (singular wάpαpi)
Unami òpapiàk (singular òpapi)
Senses: examples: text: [A]mong the Red Men of America the giving of the white belt of wampum was the deepest pledge of honor; […]
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Whiteness of the Whale”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 208:
text: From his lodge went Hiawatha, / Dressed for travel, armed for hunting; / Dressed in deer-skin shirt and leggings, / Richly wrought with quills and wampum; / On his head his eagle-feathers, / Round his waist his belt of wampum, […]
ref: 1855 November 10, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis”, in The Song of Hiawatha, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 51:
text: These title deeds are of wampum, the grant of an Indian chief to the first Dowell, who left Farnham in Surrey in company with William Penn.
ref: 1915, Ford Madox Hueffer [i.e., Ford Madox Ford], chapter I, in The Good Soldier […], Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1972 (1982 printing), →ISBN, part I, page 12:
synonyms: word: hiaqua
word: peag
word: porcelain
word: seawan
word: seawant
glosses: Small cylindrical beads made from polished shells (especially white ones) which have been strung together, formerly used by Native American peoples of eastern North America for various purposes including as jewellery and money, and for record-keeping; (countable, archaic) one such bead.
examples: text: [Kenneth O'Keefe, letter] Have that seven quid. Or else I'll be kaput. […] [Sebastian Dangerfield, letter in reply] Kenneth, we all want wampum. And as you must know, if only I had some I would be only too willing to share. But the only thing I have here is a pile of business magazines which I am going to burn for a fire.
ref: 1955, J[ames] P[atrick] Donleavy, chapter 17, in The Ginger Man, London: Corgi Books, Transworld Publishers, published 1963, page 192:
text: [M]ore and more people in the folk world suddenly discovered there was more than a little wampum to be made by discovering a trace of Indian blood in their past and donning the traditional headband.
ref: 1965 December, Phil Ochs, “That was the Year that Weren’t”, in Cavalier, New York, N.Y.: DuGent Publishing Corporation, →OCLC; republished in David Cohen, editor, I’m Gonna Say It Now: The Writings of Phil Ochs, Lanham, Md.: Backbeat Books, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2020, →ISBN, page 129:
synonyms: word: ackers
word: bees and honey
word: blunt
word: bones
word: brass
word: bread
word: bread and honey
word: Bugs Bunny
word: cake
word: cheddar
word: cheese
word: ching
word: clams
word: coin
word: cream
word: currency
word: dinero
word: dosh
word: dough
word: feds
word: fedi
word: finances
word: flizz
word: flow
word: funding
word: funds
word: gravy
word: gwop
word: gwolla
word: jack
word: legal tender
word: lolly
word: lovely jubbly
word: mazuma
word: means
word: money
word: moola
word: mozzarella
word: muck
word: oof
word: ooftish
word: paper
word: rhino
word: scratch
word: scrilla
word: shrapnel
word: simoleons
word: smackers
word: smackeroos
word: smackeroonies
word: spend
word: spondulicks
word: swag
word: wampum
word: wonga
word: yenom
glosses: Money.
glosses: Ellipsis of wampum snake (“the common kingsnake or eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula)”).
Coordinate terms: word: suckanhock
english: beads made from black shells which have been strung together
translation: beads made from black shells which have been strung together
word: suckauhock
Derived terms: wampum belt
Wampumgate