wampum
Noun
- Traditional shell beads, historically used as currency by Native Americans.
- informal terms for money
- small cylindrical beads made from polished shells and fashioned into strings or belts; used by certain Native American peoples as jewelry or currency
- Small cylindrical beads made from polished shells (especially white ones) which have been strung together, formerly used by Native American peoples of eastern North America for various purposes including as jewellery and money, and for record-keeping; (countable, archaic) one such bead.
- Money.
- Ellipsis of wampum snake (“the common kingsnake or eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula)”).
Examples
- Collecting WAMPUM in Words With Friends means racking up points with valuable tiles.
Origin / Etymology
Clipping of wampumpeag (“wampum”), probably borrowed from Massachusett wampompeage (“string of white beads used as money”).
Compare peag (“string of white beads used as money”), also a clipping of wampumpeag.
Sense 3 (“common kingsnake”) is from the similarity of the snake’s appearance to a string of wampum.
Cognates
Penobscot wάpαpəyak (singular wάpαpi)
Unami òpapiàk (singular òpapi)
Synonyms
boodle, bread, cabbage, clams, dinero, dough, gelt, kale, lettuce, lolly, loot, lucre, moolah, peag, pelf, scratch, shekels, simoleons, sugar, wampumpeag, Bugs Bunny, ackers, bees and honey, blunt, brass, bread and honey, cake, cheddar, cheese, ching, coin, cream, currency, dosh, fedi, feds, finances, flizz, flow, funding, funds, gravy, gwolla, gwop, hiaqua, jack, legal tender, lovely jubbly, mazuma, means, money, moola, mozzarella, muck, oof, ooftish, paper, porcelain, rhino, scrilla, seawan, seawant, shrapnel, smackeroonies, smackeroos, smackers, spend, spondulicks, swag, wampum, wonga, yenom
Scrabble Score: 15
wampum: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordwampum: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
wampum: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary