squaw
Meanings
Plural: squaws
Noun
- an American Indian woman
- A woman, wife; especially a Native American woman.
Origin / Etymology
From Massachusett squàw (“woman”), from Proto-Algonquian *eθkwe·wa (“(young) woman”). Cognate with Abenaki -skwa (“female, wife”), Mohegan-Pequot sqá, Cree iskwew / ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ (iskeyw, “woman”), Ojibwe ikwe (“woman”). In the 1970s, some non-linguists began to claim that the word originally meant "vagina"; this has been discredited.
The first recorded version of the word was found in a book called Mourt’s Relation: A Journey of the Pilgrims at Plymouth written in 1622. The term was not used in a derogatory fashion but spoke of the “squa sachim or Massachusets Queen” in the September 20, 1621 journal entry.
Scrabble Score: 17
squaw is not valid in Scrabble (US) TWL Dictionarysquaw is not valid in Scrabble (MW) Merriam-Webster Dictionary
squaw is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 0
squaw is not valid in Words With Friends