wampum

Meaning

  1. 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.
  2. (slang) Money.
  3. (obsolete) Short for wampum snake (“the common kingsnake or eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula)”)

Hyphenated as
wam‧pum
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈwɒmpəm/
Etymology

In summary

Clipping of wampumpeag (“wampum”), probably borrowed from Massachusett wampompeage (“string of white beads used as money”), from wamp, wap, wompi (“white”) + umpe (“string”) + -ag (plural suffix). 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 * Penobscot wάpαpəyak (singular wάpαpi) * Unami òpapiàk (singular òpapi)

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