roanoke
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
See also: Roanoke
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- rawranoke [17th c.]
Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Powhatan rawrenock (“things rubbed smooth by hand”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]roanoke (uncountable)
- (US, historical) White beads of low value made from shells, formerly used for ornaments and currency by Native Americans of colonial Virginia.
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 94:
- Cuscarawaoke, where is made so much Rawranoke or white beads that occasion as much dissention among the savages, as gold and silver amongst Christians […]
- 1656, John Tradescant, Musaeum Tradescantianum, pages 47 and 51, different spelling as printed:
- Pohatan, King of Virgiania's habit all embroidered with shells, or Roanoke (p. 47); Virginian purses imbroidered with Roanoake (p. 51)
- 1993, Joseph Douglas Deal, Race and class in colonial Virginia: Indians, Englishmen, and Africans on the Eastern Shore during the seventeenth century, page 23:
- The king of Machepungo was ordered to deliver over twice as much roanoke in graduated payments over the course of eight months.