Abenaki

American  

[uh-ben-uh-kee, ab-uh-nak-ee, ah-buh-nah-kee] / əˈbɛn ə ki, ˌæb əˈnæk i, ˌɑ bəˈnɑ ki /

noun

• Abenakis,
  plural
• Abenaki
  plural

1. a member of a grouping of Indigenous peoples of southern Quebec, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and parts of northern Massachusetts.

2. any of the Eastern Algonquian languages of the Abenaki peoples.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Abenaki or their language.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Abenaki
  plural
• Abenakis
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Abenaki

First recorded in 1690–1700; from French Abenaqui, Abenaki, from Eastern Abenaki ( Penobscot ) wapánahki or Western Abenaki wɔ̃banakii, literally, “people of the dawn land, easterners,” a self-designation

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Abenaki Abenakis

Her win follows changes to the organization’s policies, including the acknowledgment that the residency program takes place on First Nations land, home of the Western Abenaki people.

From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2023

Michelle O’Bonsawin, an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation and a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, is set to fill the vacancy on the nation’s highest bench after a parliamentary hearing.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 19, 2022

Earl Hatley, a member of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, is one of the Indigenous activists frustrated with the Biden administration.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 19, 2022

Tribes that have practiced the art form include some Algonquin peoples of the Great Lakes parts of Canada and the United States, Ojibwe, Pottawatomi, Abenaki, Odawa, Chippewa and some groups of Cree.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 30, 2021

Meanwhile, the Wampanoag were rivals and enemies of the Narragansett and Pequots to the west and the many groups of Abenaki to the north.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

There were also Nipmuck towns between Boston and the Connecticut River Valley, and the Abenakis held most of inland Maine.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018

I thought about the First Nation Abenakis, how they named the lakes and rivers, and about our ignorance.

From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2017

The governor and intendant of Canada write that the Abenakis had begun a treaty of neutrality with the English, but that as "les Jésuites observoient les sauvages, le traité ne fut pas conclu."

From A Half Century of Conflict - Volume I France and England in North America by Francis Parkman

In 1689, most of the English garrison having been withdrawn, it had been surprised and taken by the Abenakis.

From A Historical Geography of the British Colonies Vol. V, Canada—Part I, Historical by Charles Prestwood Lucas

His attitude, however, was uncertain; for as early as 1707 we find him approving Vaudreuil for directing the missionaries to prompt the Abenakis to war.

From A Half Century of Conflict - Volume I France and England in North America by Francis Parkman