Shawnee

[shaw-nee]

noun

plural

Shawnees ,

plural

Shawnee .

1. a member of an Algonquian-speaking tribe formerly in the east-central U.S., now in Oklahoma.

2. the Algonquian language of the Shawnee tribe.

3. a town in E Kansas.

4. a city in central Oklahoma.

Shawnee

/ ʃɔːˈniː /

noun

1. a member of a North American Indian people formerly living along the Tennessee River

2. the language of this people, belonging to the Algonquian family

Word History and Origins

Origin of Shawnee¹

1720–30, back formation from earlier Shawnese, Shawanese (construed as plural), reshaping (with -ese ) of earlier Shawanoes (plural) < Munsee Delaware šá·wano·w (singular) < Shawnee ša·wano·ki Shawnees, literally, people of the south

Word History and Origins

Origin of Shawnee¹

C20: back formation from obsolete Shawnese, from Shawnee Shaawanwaaki people of the south, from shaawanawa south

Example Sentences

Before the European settlers arrived and killed off most of the indigenous people, Greenbrier County was part of the Can-tuc-kee territory, where the Shawnee and Cherokee peoples lived.

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Shawnee Smith in "Saw" However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t consider the “Saw” movies, which sit at the other end of Perkins’ spectrum of pastiche.

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A Shawnee County District Court judge had earlier rejected the groups’ request for an emergency injunction, saying that impersonation of a public official is not protected speech.

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And when chiseled turkey bones were unearthed on Tennessee land once inhabited by the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Shawnee and Yuchi peoples, archaeologists weren’t sure if they were for tattooing, medicinal uses or leatherworking.

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In Shawnee, Oklahoma, lawmakers passed an ordinance last year to penalize the feeding of homeless people in its downtown.

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