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Mahican

[ muh-hee-kuhn ]
/ məˈhi kən /
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noun, plural Ma·hi·cans, (especially collectively) Ma·hi·can for 1, 2.
a tribe or confederacy of North American Indians of the Algonquian family, centralized formerly in the upper Hudson valley.
a member of this tribe or confederacy.
the extinct Algonquian language of the Mahican Indians.
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Also Mohican .

Origin of Mahican

First recorded in 1605–15; self-designation of the Mahican people; literally, “person (people) of the tidal estuary (of the Hudson River)”; cognate with Munsee Delaware ma·hí·kan; compare -a·hi·kan in kihta·hí·kan “ocean,” with kiht- “great”); the spelling variant Mohican was popularized by James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

Words nearby Mahican

Mahdi, Mahé, Mahendra, mahewu, Mahfouz, Mahican, mahimahi, mah jong, mah-jongg, Mahler, Mahler, Gustav
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Mahican in a sentence

  • An old Mahican settlement known as Potick was located a little back from the river.

    The Hudson|Wallace Bruce

  • The Mahican Village at the mouth of the creek was called Nappechemak.

    The Hudson|Wallace Bruce

British Dictionary definitions for Mahican

Mahican
/ (məˈhiːkən) /
noun plural -cans or -can
a variant of Mohican
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
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