wampum

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English[edit]

WOTD – 24 November 2023

Etymology[edit]

A string of wampum (sense 1).[n 1]
A common kingsnake or eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula), formerly known as a wampum snake or wampum (sense 3).

Clipping of wampumpeag (“wampum”),[1] probably borrowed from Massachusett wampompeage (“string of white beads used as money”), from wamp, wap, wompi (“white”) + umpe (“string”) + -ag (plural suffix).[2][3][4]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

wampum (countable and uncountable, plural wampums or wampum) (originally and chiefly US)

  2. (uncountable) 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.
    (uncountable): Synonyms: hiaqua, peag, (historical or obsolete) porcelain, seawan, seawant
  3. (uncountable, slang) Money.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:money
    • 1955, J[ames] P[atrick] Donleavy, chapter 17, in The Ginger Man, London: Corgi Books, Transworld Publishers, published 1963, page 192:
      [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.
    • 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:
      [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.
  5. (countable, obsolete) Short for wampum snake (“the common kingsnake or eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula)”)

Alternative forms[edit]

Coordinate terms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

(slang) money — see money
clipping of wampum snake — see common kingsnake

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ From the collection of the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

References[edit]

  1. ^ “wampum, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ Compare “wampumpeag, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  3. ^ “wampumpeag, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
  4. ^ “wampum, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

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