Abenaki

Meanings

Proper Noun

• An Algonquian First People from northeastern North America, mainly Maine and Quebec.
• A complex of Eastern Algonquian lects, originally spoken in what is now Maine, and Quebec, divided into Western Abenaki and Eastern Abenaki (Penobscot).
• The Western Abenaki language.

Noun

• A member of this Algonquian First People.

Adjective

• Related or pertaining to the Abenaki people or language.

Origin

• From French abénaqui, either from Montagnais ouabanākionek ("people of the eastern country") or from the Western Abenaki autonym Wôbanaki or an Eastern Abenaki/Penobscot cognate of the same, from Algonquin. Ultimately a compound word meaning "people of the east" or "people of the dawn-land", from Proto-Algonquian *wa·panki ("dawn") + *askyi.