wampum
Americannoun
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Also called sewan. Also called peag, seawan. cylindrical beads made from shells, pierced and strung, used by North American Indians as a medium of exchange, for ornaments, and for ceremonial and sometimes spiritual purposes, especially such beads when white but also including the more valuable black or dark-purple varieties.
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Informal: Often Offensive. money.
noun
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(formerly) money used by North American Indians, made of cylindrical shells strung or woven together, esp white shells rather than the more valuable black or purple ones
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informal money or wealth
Sensitive Note
See firewater.
Etymology
Origin of wampum
First recorded in 1630–40; short for wampumpeag
Vocabulary lists containing wampum
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A pair of cases are devoted to items from the Nanticoke people, including a wampum belt and necklace featuring whelk and clam shells and a toy canoe crafted from pine needles and sinew.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 22, 2022
It was also their economic nerve center, with the salmon trading for all manner of goods from feathers to copper to wampum, beads crafted from shells.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 16, 2022
“You can sense that that’s not where they belong and that’s not where they want to be,” she said of the wampum belts, war clubs and other items she documented with her phone camera.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 21, 2022
And some of your ingredients felt like home to me, such as the Quogue clam, then later it comes wampum, the first money.
From Salon ● Dec. 12, 2021
Around his neck hung a pouch of tobacco, a long knife, and a thick chain of the prized white shell beads called wampum.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
