Abenaki

See also: abenaki

English

Alternative forms

• (Eastern Abenaki) Abnaki
• (Western Abenaki) Wabnaki
• (Abenaki confederacy) Waponahki

Etymology

From French abénaquis, either from Montagnais ouabanākionek (“people of the eastern country”) or from the Western Abenaki autonym Wôbanaki or an Eastern Abenaki/Penobscot cognate of the same, from Algonquin. Ultimately a compound word meaning "people of the east" or "people of the dawn-land", from Proto-Algonquian *wa·panki (“dawn”) +‎ *askyi (“land”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌæbəˈnæ.ki/, /ˌɑbəˈnɑki/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Proper noun

Abenaki

1. An Algonquian First People from northeastern North America, mainly Maine and Quebec. [early 18th century]
   • 2000, Jan Albers, Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 57:

     The Abenaki could also be brave warriors, but like most hunter-gatherers they probably did not go looking for trouble.

2. A complex of Eastern Algonquian lects, originally spoken in what is now Maine, and Quebec, divided into Western Abenaki and Eastern Abenaki (Penobscot). [early 20th century]
3. (in particular) The Western Abenaki language.

Derived terms

• Abenakian
• abenakiite

 

Translations

language

• French: abénaqui (fr), abénaquis (fr) m
• German: Abenaki (de) n
• Marathi: आबेनाकी f (ābenākī)
• Swedish: abenakiska (sv) c

Noun

Abenaki (plural Abenakis or Abenaki)

1. A member of this Algonquian First People. [early 18th century]

Translations

member of the Algonquian people

• German: Abenaki (de) m
• Marathi: आबेनाकी m (ābenākī)

Adjective

Abenaki (not comparable)

1. Related or pertaining to the Abenaki people or language. [early 19th century]
   • 2008, Toni Morrison, A Mercy, Chatto & Windus, page 37:

     I am to walk left, westward on the Abenaki trail which I will know by the sapling bent into the earth with one sprout growing skyward.

Translations

related to the Abenaki people or language

• French: abénaqui (fr), abénaquis (fr) m
• German: abenakisch (rare)
• Marathi: आबेनाकी (ābenākī)
• Portuguese: abenaki

See also

• Wiktionary's coverage of Abenaki terms

Further reading

• Ethnologue entry for Western Abenaki, abe ⁠
• Ethnologue entry for Eastern Abenaki, aaq ⁠ (Penobscot, extinct)

Anagrams

• ikebana, in a bake