{"id":6431,"date":"2018-02-02T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=6431"},"modified":"2021-04-11T14:27:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T18:27:44","slug":"10-english-words-borrowed-from-indigenous-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/10-english-words-borrowed-from-indigenous-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"10 English Words Borrowed from Indigenous Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6432\" style=\"width: 837px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6432\" class=\"size-large wp-image-6432\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American-827x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"827\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American-827x1024.jpg 827w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American-283x350.jpg 283w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American-768x951.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American.jpg 1034w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 827px) 100vw, 827px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6432\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo from Pixaby, CCO<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A surprising number of words in our English vocabulary can be traced back to the indigenous tribes of the Americas. These are the inhabitants of North and South America before the arrival of <strong>Christopher Columbus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Close to 85% of all English words are originally derived from just three other language sources. According to surveys cited in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lists_of_English_words_by_country_or_language_of_origin\">Wikipedia<\/a>, much of our vocabulary can be traced to<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>29% Latin<\/li>\n<li>29% French<\/li>\n<li>26% Germanic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, settlers in the New World were introduced to many creatures and experiences for which there was no word in our language, so they borrowed words from the native sources and created English words to identify what they were seeing, tasting, and encountering. Some words, like <em>igloo<\/em>, are obvious, but others may surprise you. The list is long, and many of the words are specific to the areas of the Americas where the European settlers would have first chanced upon them. I have selected a few of the most common, or most surprising words on the list, along with information on the specific indigenous tribe that the word is borrowed from.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Chocolate<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We have to begin with this word, don\u2019t we? It comes to us from the <strong>Nahuatl<\/strong> tribe from Mexico and Central America. It is believed to be derived from combining the Nahuatl words\u00a0<em>xococ<\/em>, meaning bitter and\u00a0<em>\u0101tl<\/em>, or water. However, some now theorize that the word actually comes to us from the Nahuatl word <em>chicol<\/em>, which was a special stick used in stirring and making chocolate. Whatever the linguistic origin may be, we can\u2019t thank the Nahuatl people enough, can we?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Hurricane<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The now extinct <strong>Taino<\/strong> tribe from the Bahamas and Greater Antilles region told the Spanish settlers of a fierce weather phenomenon called <em>hurak\u00e1n<\/em>, which became the English word we now know and dread.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Caucus<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>From the widespread <strong>Algonquin<\/strong> tribe, which ranged from the Northeastern area of North America to the Midwest, we get this word for an assembly of legislative and\/or political groups. Its derivation is either from the Algonquian word for counsel, <em>caucauasu<\/em>; or the Algonquian\u00a0<em>cawaassough<\/em>, meaning an advisor, or orator.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Potato<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The first potato that settlers to the New World ever encountered was the sweet potato of Haiti, which the <strong>Haitian Carab<\/strong> people called <em>batata<\/em>, and the Spanish explorers misinterpreted as patata. You say batata, I say patata.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Tomato<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also from the Nahuatl comes the word for our favorite fruit of late summer. They called it <em>tomatl<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Cannibal<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>Caribs<\/strong> were a widely disseminated people of northeast South America and the Lesser Antilles. They invaded the territory of the <strong>Arawaks<\/strong>, killing or displacing the men and taking the women as wives. The later Cariban language became a mix of the two. The Spanish settlers took the Cariban word <em>karipona<\/em>, meaning person, and turned it into <em>canibalis<\/em>, based upon their belief that the Caribs ate the flesh of those they killed. Actually, most Arawaks were killed by diseases brought to the region by the Spanish.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Tobacco<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Speaking of the Arawak tribe, they first introduced the Spanish to tobacco, but the origin of the word is widely in dispute. It probably comes to us as the Spanish word <em>tabaco<\/em> taken from the Taino word\u00a0<em>tabako<\/em>, which either meant a roll of leaves or described the instrument the tribe used with which to smoke the leaves. Thus, it either originally referred to a cigar or to a pipe.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Cashew<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>Tupi<\/strong> tribe, indigenous to Brazil, introduced the Portuguese to this nut, which they called <em>aca\u00eeu<\/em>, and the Portuguese called <em>caju<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Kayak<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These tiny boats, powered by double-paddled oars, were (and still are) a staple of life for the <strong>Inuit<\/strong> tribe, as they hunted along the inland and coastal waters of Canada, Greenland, and the northwest coast of North America, primarily Alaska. Their word for the watercraft was <em>qajaq<\/em>, which sounds like the English word we know today.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Bayou<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The distinctive waterways of the American south were originally named <em>bayuk<\/em>, or creek river, by the <strong>Choctaw<\/strong> tribe. The French later changed the name to bayou.<\/p>\n<p>Can you think of any other English words that we owe to Native Americans?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"283\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American-283x350.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American-283x350.jpg 283w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American-768x951.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American-827x1024.jpg 827w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/02\/Native-American.jpg 1034w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/><p>A surprising number of words in our English vocabulary can be traced back to the indigenous tribes of the Americas. These are the inhabitants of North and South America before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Close to 85% of all English words are originally derived from just three other language sources. According to surveys cited&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/10-english-words-borrowed-from-indigenous-americans\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":6432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,135139,135370],"tags":[333545,501012,219144,13],"class_list":["post-6431","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-english-language","category-english-vocabulary","tag-american-history","tag-indigenous-tribes","tag-native-americans","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6431"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6436,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431\/revisions\/6436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}