wampum

Meaning

Noun

• Small beads made from polished shells, especially white ones, formerly used as money and jewelry by certain Native American peoples.
• A string of such beads.
• Money.

Related

Similar words

• seawan, peag; porcelain

Opposite words

• suckanhock

Origin

• Clipped from wampumpeag (from Narragansett; compare the opposite clipping peag), which is a compound of wamp, wompi + umpe + -ag, and referred to the string of white shell-beads rather than the individual beads.