Wyandot

noun

Wy·​an·​dot ˈwī-ən-ˌdät 

 also  ˈwīn-ˌdät

variants or Wyandotte

plural Wyandots or Wyandottes or Wyandot or Wyandotte

1

: a member of a group of Indigenous peoples formed in the 17th century by the Hurons and other tribes fleeing the Iroquois

Note: Current-day members live as part of the federally recognized Wyandotte Nation in Oklahoma.

2

: the Iroquoian language of the Wyandots

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Wyandot wę́ˑⁿdat, a Huron and Wyandot self-designation

Note: The phonemicized form wę́ˑⁿdat was provided to the editors of the Handbook of North American Indians by Floyd Lounsbury (see vol. 15, Northeast, p. 405); the symbol ⁿd represents a pre-nasalized voiced dental stop. The Jesuit missionary Paul Potier wrote the word ȣendat [ȣ = ou] in his Elementa grammaticae Huronicae of 1745 (see Fifteenth Report for the Bureau of Archives of the Province of Ontario, 1918-19, Toronto, 1920, p. 154). Lounsbury suggests that the form "is probably an elliptical shortening of some longer form corresponding to Mohawk skawę́ˑnat 'one language' or tshaʔtekawę́ˑnat 'the same language (word, speech).'"

First Known Use

1748, in the meaning defined at sense 1