wampumn.
/ˈwɒmpəm/, U.S. /ˈwɑmpəm/ 1.
a. With singular or plural agreement. Small cylindrical beads made from shells and strung together, used by some eastern North American Indian peoples for many purposes, including trade, ornament, and record-keeping, and (formerly) by European settlers as a currency. Also as a count noun: one of these beads (now rare).
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society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > other mediums of exchange > [noun] > beads
roanoke1615
wampumpeag1627
Indian money1634
wampum1636
peag1638
seawant1701
hiaqua1824
shell-money1851
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > types of ornamentation > jewellery > jewellery of specific shape or form > [noun] > bead(s)
graina1350
juniper-beads1486
beadc1500
adder-stone1587
bead-stone1677
adder-bead1694
wampumpeag1705
wampum1753
strand1825
society > communication > record > pictorial, etc., records > [noun] > beads used by North American Indians
wampum1915
1636 J. Winthrop Hist. New Eng. (1825) (modernized text) I. 193 The trade of beaver and wampom was to be farmed, and all others restrained from trading.
1677 W. Hubbard Narr. Troubles with Indians New-Eng. (new ed.) Suppl. 118 Sending Messengers a second time, who offered much Wampam (Indians Money) and Beaver.
1753 S. Hopkins Hist. Mem. Housatunnuk Indians 4 A Wompum is a small Cylinder of about one third of an Inch long... A Number of these strung upon small Threads, and knit together in the Form of a Belt, are call'd a Belt of Wompum.
1761 Brit. Mag. 2 480 This declaration they confirmed with belts of wampum.
1855 H. W. Longfellow Hiawatha ix. 120 The shafts of Hiawatha Harmless hit the shirt of wampum.
1876 G. Bancroft Hist. U.S. (rev. ed.) II. xxvii. 183 The farmers and seamen of Massachusetts nourished its college with coin and strings of wampum, and in every village built the free school.
1915 F. M. Ford Good Soldier i. i. 9 These title deeds are of wampum, the grant of an Indian chief to the first Dowell.
1954 Peabody Jrnl. Educ. 32 162 At first, only the chiefs could wear wampum.
1997 E. Shenkier & T. Meredith in A. Wellington et al. Canad. Issues in Environmental Ethics iii. 71/1 A wampum is a cylindrical bead of either white or purple colour, derived from the hard shell of a clam.
2003 G. Roza Iroquois of N.Y. iii. 31 Wampum were used for a variety of reasons. They were used in special ceremonies.
2016 Industr. Goods Monitor Worldwide (Nexis) 7 Nov. Barter also took the form of traditional native currencies such as furs and wampum which were essential for frontier trading with the indigenous population.
b. colloquial (originally and chiefly U.S.) Money.
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society > trade and finance > money > [noun]
silverc825
feec870
pennieseOE
wortheOE
mintOE
scata1122
spense?c1225
spendinga1290
sumc1300
gooda1325
moneya1325
cattlec1330
muckc1330
reasona1382
pecunyc1400
gilt1497
argentc1500
gelta1529
Mammon1539
ale silver1541
scruff1559
the sinews of war1560
sterling1565
lour1567
will-do-all1583
shell1591
trasha1592
quinyie1596
brass1597
pecuniary1604
dust1607
nomisma1614
countera1616
cross and pilea1625
gingerbreada1625
rhinoa1628
cash1646
grig1657
spanker1663
cole1673
goree1699
mopus1699
quid1699
ribbin1699
bustle1763
necessary1772
stuff1775
needfula1777
iron1785
(the) Spanish1788
pecuniar1793
kelter1807
dibs1812
steven1812
pewter1814
brad1819
pogue1819
rent1823
stumpy1828
posh1830
L. S. D.1835
rivetc1835
tin1836
mint sauce1839
nobbins1846
ochre1846
dingbat1848
dough1848
cheese1850
California1851
mali1851
ducat1853
pay dirt1853
boodle?1856
dinero1856
scad1856
the shiny1856
spondulicks1857
rust1858
soap1860
sugar1862
coin1874
filthy1876
wampum1876
ooftish1877
shekel1883
oil1885
oof1885
mon1888
Jack1890
sploshc1890
bees and honey1892
spending-brass1896
stiff1897
mazuma1900
mazoom1901
cabbage1903
lettuce1903
Oscar Asche1905
jingle1906
doubloons1908
kale1912
scratch1914
green1917
oscar1917
snow1925
poke1926
oodle1930
potatos1931
bread1935
moolah1936
acker1939
moo1941
lolly1943
loot1943
poppy1943
mazoola1944
dosh1953
bickies1966
lovely jubbly1990
scrilla1994
1876 R. H. Phelps Newgate of Connecticut: Origin & Early Hist. 102 The wampum of the red-man was considered as rather below par—perhaps bearing a relation to our present paper wampum, when estimated by the standard of gold and silver.
1897 Outing July 367/2 I laid some of their own miserable, smelly, garlicky, paper-wampum upon their official..desk, saying, as I did this: ‘You can keep the change.’
1938 Amer. Home June 7/1 (advt.) The Keeper of the Wampum in our family practically purrs when he gets our electric bills.
2002 Financial Times 28 Sept. (Travel section) It is fast becoming a brand worth your wampum.
2014 Washington Post Blogs (Nexis) 1 Dec. You're going to need some serious wampum—like $300,000 worth.
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the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Colubridae > genus or member of genus Coluber
corn-snake1676
blacksnake1694
wampum snake1737
coluber1754
pilot snake1793
wampum1819
1819 D. B. Warden Statist., Polit. & Hist. Acct. U.S. II. xiv. 38 There are rattle-snakes, black snakes, wampums, and other species.
1853 E. D. Cope Let. 27 Sept. in Amer. Geologist 26 76 I caught a large water snake or water wampum as they are called here.
Phrases
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > [noun] > for specific purpose > evening
evening dress1782
evening wear1800
wampum and warpaint1876
formal1941
1876 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer xv, in Austral. Town & Country Jrnl. (Sydney) 21 Oct. 662/4 He arrayed himself in the wampum and warpaint proper for such engagements as manufactured by Mr. Poole, of Saville Row.
1898 Evening News (Sydney) 22 Jan. (Suppl.) 3/1 The lady desirous of appearing to the full glory of wampum and warpaint will have to sit motionless for a full minute.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, as wampum bead, wampum collar, wampum shell, etc.
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1768 C. Beatty Jrnl. Two Months' Tour 32 Mr. Gibson..recommended us to one of the chiefs by a letter and a string of wampum beads.
1845 Southern & Western Mag. & Rev. Oct. 256 The wampum girdle which belted his waist.
1932 Collier's 9 Jan. 40/1 Wampum shells circulated readily among the North American Indians.
1962 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 75 290 The daughter or niece spends hours visiting the corpse and receives in one instance a wampum bracelet in token of paternity.
2004 C. J. Jaenen in P. L. Fleming et al. Hist. of Bk. in Canada I. i. 15 They presented her with a wampum collar recording their fidelity.
C2.
wampum belt n. a broad, patterned strip of wampum beads strung together to record a message, event, treaty, etc., and used in rituals or as a (diplomatic) gift; = wampum record n.; cf. belt n.1 11.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for body or trunk (and limbs) > [noun] > belt or sash > types of > made of specific material
tissuec1374
wampum belt1676
postilion-belt1773
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > types of ornamentation > jewellery > jewellery of specific shape or form > [noun] > bead(s) > belt made of beads
wampum belt1676
belt of wampum1694
wampum record1881
1676 B. Tompson New-Englands Tears 12 All up in Wampum Belts, most richly drest.
1764 S. Foote Lyar i. ii. 13 He shall present you with the wampum belt, and a scalping knife.
1830 T. Carlyle in Fraser's Mag. Nov. 413/1 History has been written with quipo-threads, with feather pictures, with wampum-belts.
2017 Niagara (Canada) Advance (Nexis) 29 July a35 The wampum belt..was used by various Indigenous tribes to record political and diplomatic events and often read and discussed before new treaties were accepted.
wampum clam n. now rare the quahog or hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria, the shell of which was used to make wampum (see sense 1a).
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > class Pelecypoda or Conchifera > [noun] > section Siphonida > sinu-pallialia > family Veneridae > shell of
wampum clam1786
Montagu's Venus1819
1778 E. M. da Costa Hist. Nat. Testaceorum Brit. 184/1 Mr. Pennant has also followed this Linnean error, by proposing the North-American clam or wampum shell as the same species with this [sc. Pectunculus crassus].]
1786 Catal. Portland Mus. (Skinner & Co.) 59 A Venus mercenaria, L. or wampum clam, of which kind of shell the beads in the [wampum] belt are made.
1884 G. B. Goode in Fisheries Exhib. Lit. V. 45 There are two important kinds of Clams—the Long Clam, or ‘Maninose’, Mya arenaria, and the Quahaug, or Round Clam, sometimes called the Wampum Clam, Venus mercenaria.
1994 E. B. Kavasch EarthMaker's Lodge v. 139 Original wampum was handmade from the core of conch and whelk shells, and especially from the quahog (or wampum) clam, found only in Atlantic coastal waters.
wampum record n. a broad, patterned strip of wampum beads strung together to record a message, event, treaty, etc., and used in rituals or as a (diplomatic) gift; = wampum belt n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > types of ornamentation > jewellery > jewellery of specific shape or form > [noun] > bead(s) > belt made of beads
wampum belt1676
belt of wampum1694
wampum record1881
1881 H. Hale Hiawatha & Iroquois Confederation 17 The Onondagas had brought with them most of their wampum records.
1895 W. J. Hoffman Beginnings of Writing 24 Wampum records are purely mnemonic.
2007 Stud. Amer. Indian Lit. 19 80 Wampum records are maintained by regularly revisiting and re-‘reading’ them through community memory and performance.
wampum snake n. now historical any of several North American colubrid snakes having colourful bands or stripes; esp. the mud snake Farancia abacura; cf. sense 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Colubridae > genus or member of genus Coluber
corn-snake1676
blacksnake1694
wampum snake1737
coluber1754
pilot snake1793
wampum1819
the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Colubridae > farancia abacura (hoop-snake)
horn-snake1694
wampum snake1737
horned snake1775
hoop-snake1784
1737 M. Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina II. viii. Pl. 58 (heading) The Wampum Snake...receives its name from the Resemblance it has to Indian Money called Wampum,..made of Shells cut into regular Pieces, and strung with a Mixture of Blue and White.
1802 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. III. 463 Wampum Snake. Coluber Fasciatus.
1893 Trenton (New Jersey) Times 12 Jan. 1/2 Druggist W. H. Mickel..has the skin of a wampum snake six feet in length.
1950 Herpetologica 6 170/2 Wampum snake. F[arancia] abacura.
2015 A. A. Bauer in E. C. Nelson & D. J. Elliott Curious Mister Catesby xvii. 239 (caption) ‘The Wampum Snake’ has been variously interpreted as a water snake (Nerodia sp.) or the eastern mudsnake (Farancia abacura).
Derivatives
ˈwampum-wise adv. †(a) (threaded) after the manner of wampum (obsolete rare); (b) U.S. colloquial as regards money; financially (cf. sense 1b) (rare).
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1790 Proc. Afr. Assoc. 36 The beads are worked wampum-wise.
1966 Miami (Okla.) News-Record 2 Sept. 5 (advt.) Wampum-wise, Trujuns are popularly priced to fit into any tight school budget.
2008 Lebanon (Pa.) Daily News (Nexis) 29 Dec. We came to the unsettling realization that more is going out than coming in, wampum wise.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2019; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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