Papago

[ pah-puh-goh, pap-uh- ]

noun,plural Pa·pa·gos, (especially collectively) Pa·pa·go.
  1. former name of the Tohono O'odham.

Origin of Papago

1
First recorded in 1810–20; from Spanish pápago, earlier papabo(s), shortening of papabi-ootam from Oʼodham bá·bawĭ-ʔóʔodham “Papago(s)” (former self-designation), equivalent to bá·bawĭ “tepary beans” + ʔóʔodham “Piman, fellow tribesman, human being”

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Papago in a sentence

  • As nails were scarce, Buckskin Alick had constructed a mill held together by rawhides, and was grinding wheat for the Papagos.

  • The Papagos accounted for most of the dead, but we six white men and our Mexican friends did our part.

    Arizona's Yesterday | John H. Cady
  • The Pimos foot up five or six thousand, and from them are sprung the Papagos—a great tribe dominating all southern Arizona.

    Across America | James F. Rusling
  • That the language of the Papagos, or Papago-cotam, is also Pima, rests upon good external evidence.

    Opuscula | Robert Gordon Latham
  • It was not in the Papagos code to add one ounce to the weight of circumstance obtruding between himself and water.

    Dust of the Desert | Robert Welles Ritchie