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Shawnee

[shaw-nee]
noun, plural Shaw·nees, (especially collectively) Shaw·nee.
  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.

Origin of Shawnee

1720–30, Americanism; 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
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for shawnees

Historical Examples of shawnees

  • The Wyandottes are at peace with the Shawnees and do not take away their captives.

    Rodney, the Ranger

    John V. Lane

  • They were neither Miamis nor Shawnees, nor any other tribe he knew.

    The Eyes of the Woods

    Joseph A. Altsheler

  • The girl, just rescued from the Shawnees, was a comely maiden.

  • He was killed at the battle of the Thames, where the power of the Shawnees was for ever crushed.

  • He had the courage to attempt proof of his belief in the honesty of the Shawnees.

    A Virginia Scout

    Hugh Pendexter

British Dictionary definitions for shawnees

Shawnee

noun
  1. plural -nees or -nee 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 Origin for Shawnee

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

Shawnee

Algonquian people, probably originally from what is now southern Ohio, 1670s, from Munsee sawanow, from Shawnee /ša:wanwa/, the people's self-designation, literally "person of the south."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
shawnees in Culture

Shawnees

[(shaw-neez)]

A tribe of Native Americans who inhabited Ohio, Indiana, and other parts of the Middle West during the early nineteenth century. The most famous Shawnee leader was Tecumseh, who joined with the British against the Americans during the War of 1812.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.