Edited sentence: However, there were a wide variety of spellings, including: Beothuk, Beothik, Beothick, Beothic, Béhathook, Boeothuck, and Beathook.Prior to French and British settlement, they may have been the people known by the Norse as skrælingjar ("skraelings"), though that appellation might only apply to Inuit/proto-Inuit populations they encountered.The name Beothuk did not appear until the late 18th century, until words from their language were collected by captured individuals.The word "Beothuk" has an unknown etymology; it may be related to the Mi'kmawi'simk concept of "upriver" (for example, pi'taw "up river/upstream," pi'tawa's'g "goes up river/the coast," or pi'tawa'toq "take it up river/the coast").Until then, and even after that time, the Beothuk were known instead as the Red Indians because of their lavish use of red ochre