Onondagan.adj.
/ˌɒnənˈdɑːɡə/, U.S. /ˌɔnənˈdɑɡə/, /ˌɑnənˈdɑɡə/ A. n.
1. A member of a North American Indian people, one of the original five of the Iroquois Confederacy, inhabiting an area near Syracuse, New York, and, since the late 18th cent., also living in Ontario.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > North American peoples > peoples of North-Eastern America > [noun] > Iroquois peoples > five or six nations > members of
Maqua1616
Mohawk1634
Seneca1664
Oneida1666
Onondaga1677
Tuscarora1713
Cayuga1744
1677 in E. B. O'Callaghan Documents Colonial Hist. N.-Y. (1881) XIII. 510 They say wee doe also Lately approove of yt which ye Onnondages have now said, calling them there fathers (as they doe Likewayes the Christians of this Government).
1684 T. Dongan in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. (1871) 4th Ser. IX. 187 I haue perswaded all the considerable Indians, the Maquas, Sineques, Onondages..to give up their lands.
1698 tr. L. Hennepin New Discov. in Amer. i. 18 We pass'd through the Countries of the Honnehiouts and Honnontages, who gave us a very kind reception.
?1743 G. Thomas Treaty held with Indians of Six Nations at Philadelphia in July 1742 v The Onontago's were the next that..of their own Accord became Confederates.
1765 in Documents Colonial Hist. N.-Y. VII. 719 The Onondagas..intended speaking to the Senecas, and Delawares.
1797 B. S. Barton New Views Origin Tribes & Nations Amer. p. xxxviii The Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagos, Cayugas, and Oneidas, constitute the confederacy which has long been known by the name of the Five Nations.
1823 J. F. Cooper Pioneers I. vii. 103 The Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas..ranked, in the confederation, in the order with which they are named.
1845 J. F. Cooper Chainbearer I. viii. 103 Mohawk make peace; Oneida make peace; Onondago make peace—all bury 'e hatchet.
1874 B. F. Taylor World on Wheels i. 31 The painted Senecas and the smoky Onondagas went gliding about like vanishing shadows.
1945 Reader's Digest Aug. 52 Iroquois and Onondagas in industrial centers are recognized as among the best structural steel workers in the world.
1971 D. Heffron Nice Fire & Some Moonpennies vii. 59 My mother is an Onondaga and my father was a Mohawk.
1998 New Yorker 7 Sept. 30/2 Oren Lyons, who is the faith-keeper of the Onondaga and is a famous Native American lacrosse player, had told me to be at the box by eleven.
2. The Northern Iroquoian language spoken by the Onondagas.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > languages of the world > Amerindian > [noun] > northern Amerindian > Iroquoian > Iroquoian languages
Mohawk1754
Cherokee1761
Huron1776
Nottoway1830
Wyandot1837
Onondaga1887
Cayuga1933
Oneida1933
Tuscarora1933
1887 Science 18 Nov. 251/2 The Mohawk..might be called a written language, and had changed much less in a century and a half than the Onondaga had in less than a century.
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. iv. 72 The languages of the Iroquois type (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, [etc.]).
1974 H. Woodbury in Papers in Linguistics, Conf. Iroquoian Res. 1972 15 Onondaga does not have relative clauses in the same sense that English does.
1998 A. Dalby Dict. Langs. 123/2 The surviving Northern Iroquoian languages are Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora.
B. adj. (attributive) .
Of, belonging to, or relating to the Onondagas, their territory, or their language.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > North American peoples > peoples of North-Eastern America > [adjective] > Iroquois peoples
Mingo1661
Iroquois1666
Susquehannock1666
Seneca1684
Iroquoian1697
Meherrin1709
Huron1712
Onondaga1715
Mohawk1751
Oneida1760
Wyandot1780
the mind > language > languages of the world > Amerindian > [adjective] > Iroquoian > of specific Iroquoian languages
Cherokee1674
Wyandot1780
Nottoway1822
Onondaga1974
1715 Boston News-let. 4 July 2 The French of Canada are come into our Onondago Country with 50 Birch Cannoo's and a considerable force.
1765 in Documents Colonial Hist. N.-Y. (1856) VII. 719 The Onondaga Speaker Tyawarunt spoke as follows.
1794 E. H. Smith Democracy i. 15 The Caughnawaga, Onondagoe band, and Powtowatimies, shall rule our land.
1823 J. F. Cooper Pioneers I. xii. 163 I've a strong constitution, I must say that for myself, as is plain to be seen, for I've drank the Onondaga water a hundred times.
1855 H. W. Longfellow Hiawatha 299 The Iroquois form of the tradition, derived from the verbal narrations of an Onondaga chief.
1885 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 14 251 The old Onondaga Dictionary..does not in its numerous conjugations give any indeterminate pronouns.
1935 Amer. Midland Naturalist 16 812 These ‘Onondaga red shales’ are now called the Bloomsberg, and are barren of other fossils.
1974 H. Woodbury in Papers in Linguistics, Conf. Iroquoian Res. 1972 2 One way of characterizing Onondaga noun incorporation is to describe its appearance in the surface structure of this language.
1996 B. Maracle Back on Rez ii. vi. 28 Reg was a member of the bear clan of the Onondaga Nation.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.adj.1677