Algonquin

[al-gong-kin, -kwin]

noun, plural Al·gon·quins, (especially collectively) Al·gon·quin for 1, 3.

a member of a group of North American Indian tribes formerly along the Ottawa River and the northern tributaries of the St. Lawrence.

their speech, a dialect of Ojibwa, of the Algonquian family of languages.

Algonquian.

adjective

Algonquian.

Also Algonkin.

Origin of Algonquin

1615–25; < French; earlier Algoumequin, presumably < an Algonquian language

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for algonquin

Contemporary Examples of algonquin

Even after Salinger had decamped to Cornish, he loved to lunch with William Shawn and Lillian Ross at the Algonquin in New York.
15 Revelations from New J.D. Salinger Biography
Andrew Romano
September 2, 2013
Dorothy Parker smoke, drank, and slept around—in short, everything her male colleagues in the Algonquin Round Table were doing.
Top 10 Misbehaving Literary Rogues
Andrew Shaffer
February 7, 2013
As one Democratic policy consultant puts it, “They are as ancient as Gertrude Stein in Paris or the Algonquin in New York.”
President Obama’s Hill Challenge in Avoiding Fiscal Cliff
James Warren
November 9, 2012
Her first book, a memoir of her two years working at a boarding school in Jordan, will be published by Algonquin Books in 2011.
Revolt in the Middle East: Is Jordan Next?
Rebecca Davis O'Brien
January 30, 2011
I had asked him back on that winter day while we were warming ourselves with tea at the Algonquin if he was in love.
Daniel Radcliffe, Dark Prince
Kevin Sessums
July 15, 2009

Historical Examples of algonquin

M. Galinee was slightly acquainted with the Algonquin language; he could hold some conversation with the captive.
The Adventures of the Chevalier De La Salle and His Companions, in Their Explorations of the Prairies, Forests, Lakes, and Rivers, of the New World, and Their Interviews with the Savage Tribes, Two Hundred Years Ago
John S. C. Abbott
The long house was used by the Powhatans and other Algonquin tribes.
The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2)
John Fiske.
The Black Hawk war in 1836 was the end of the Algonquin resistance.
The Indian Today
Charles A. Eastman
They are called Saulteaux, and are a subdivision of the great Algonquin family.
On the Indian Trail
Egerton Ryerson Young
"They went this way," announced an Algonquin, in his broken French.
A Little Girl in Old Quebec
Amanda Millie Douglas

British Dictionary definitions for algonquin

Algonquin

Algonkin (ælˈɡɒŋkɪn)

noun

plural -quins, -quin, -kins or -kin a member of a North American Indian people formerly living along the St Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers in Canada

the language of this people, a dialect of Ojibwa

noun, adjective

a variant of Algonquian

Word Origin for Algonquin

C17: from Canadian French, earlier written as Algoumequin; perhaps related to Micmac algoomaking at the fish-spearing place

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for algonquin

Algonquin

one of an Indian people living near the Ottawa River in Canada, 1620s, from French Algonquin, perhaps a contraction of Algoumequin, from Micmac algoomeaking "at the place of spearing fish and eels." But Bright suggests Maliseet (Algonquian) elægomogwik "they are our relatives or allies."

Algonquian (1885) was the name taken by ethnologists to describe a large group of North American Indian peoples, including this tribe. Algonquin Hotel (59 W. 44th St., Manhattan) opened 1902 and named by manager Frank Case for the tribe that had lived in that area. A circle of journalists, authors, critics, and wits began meeting there daily in 1919 and continued through the twenties; they called themselves "The Vicious Circle," but to others they became "The Round Table."