Wampanoag
[wahm-puh-noh-ag]
- a member of a once-powerful North American Indian people who inhabited the area east of Narragansett Bay from Rhode Island to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket at the time of the Pilgrim settlement.
- the Eastern Algonquian speech of the Wampanoag people, a dialect of Massachusett.
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Origin of Wampanoag
1670–80, Americanism; < Narragansett, equivalent to Proto-Algonquian *wa·pan(w)- dawn + -o·w- person of + *-aki plural suffix, i.e., easterners
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for wampanoag
Contemporary Examples
Probably in October, the Pilgrims met their Wampanoag neighbors for three days of feasting on wildfowl and venison.
Alternatively, perhaps the first Thanksgiving was a Wampanoag idea, a nickommo.
Historical Examples
I will not surrender a Wampanoag, nor the paring of a Wampanoag's nail.
King PhilipJohn S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
But the great Wampanoag chief was not a man to yield to adversity.
King PhilipJohn S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
She, like the groom's mother, probably belonged to the Wampanoag tribe.
But a Narragansett, or a Wampanoag, is a man; he scorns to lurk in the darkness.
The Wept of Wish-Ton-WishJames Fenimore Cooper
Thou art a Wampanoag, and dost know that the hunting-grounds of thy tribe have been held sacred by my people.
The Wept of Wish-Ton-WishJames Fenimore Cooper