Cherokee

Meanings

Proper Noun

• An indigenous North American people.
• Their Iroquoian language, spoken in Oklahoma and North Carolina.
• A syllabary for the Cherokee language invented by Sequoyah.
• town Colbert County (county) Alabama (state).
• Cherokee Village, Arkansas.
• census-designated place Butte County (county) California (state).
• A former gold mining settlement in Nevada County, California.
• city, county seat Cherokee County (county) Iowa (state).
• city Crawford County (county) Kansas (state).
• census-designated place Swain County (county) and Jackson County (county) North Carolina (state).
• (unincorporated) community Logan County (county) Ohio (state).
• city, county seat Alfalfa County (county) Oklahoma (state).
• (unincorporated) community Grainger County (county) Tennessee (state).
• (unincorporated) community San Saba County (county) Texas (state).
• (unincorporated) community McDowell County (county) West Virginia (state)
• (unincorporated) community town, Hull Marathon County (county) Wisconsin (state).
• town Victoria (state) Australia (country).

Noun

• A member of this people.

Related

Similar words

• Cherokee Village

Origin

• Most likely from the Cherokee autonym ᏣᎳᎩ. Derivation from a Choctaw exonym meaning "those who live in caves" (compare chiluk) has also been suggested — the Iroquois term for the Cherokee was Oyata'ge'ronon — as has derivation from a Creek term for "person(s) who speak(s) a non-Creek language" (see celokketv).
• Whatever its origin, the ethnonym entered European languages at an early date, perhaps as early as the 1670s; in Spanish, the people are called the Tchalaquei as early as 1755.