Mohawk

/ˈmoʊhɔːk/

Mohawk

English Noun Top 26,534

Definition

A member of an indigenous people of North America originally from the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario, the easternmost of the Iroquois Five Nations.

Etymology

From Dutch Mohawk. An exonym, probably from Narragansett Mohowaúgsuck, Mauquàuog, meaning “they eat (animate things)”, “cannibals”. The phoneme /m/ is not present in the Mohawk language; the Mohawk autonym is Kanienʼkehá꞉kaʼ (Kanienkehaka, Kanyenkehaka).