wašíču

Lakota

Alternative forms

Etymology

Folk etymology claims that the term is from wašíŋ (“animal fat”) +‎ ičú (“to take”), literally “s/he takes the fat”.

However, it is more likely that it is derived from wašíčuŋ (“medicine bundle”) (where wašíču is a less common alternative form), referring to the bundles of goods brought by French traders, and did not initially carry any derogatory meaning.

Compare Dakota wašicuŋ (“white man”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /waˈʃi.tʃũ/

Noun

wašíču

  1. (sometimes derogatory) white person, Caucasian, person of European descent
  2. (generally, by extension) non-Native person
  3. (derogatory) Native person who has lost their culture and thus not seen as “native”.
  4. (figurative, derogatory) greedy or dishonorable person
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.