paleface

Definition

A white person, a person of European descent, particularly in Native American contexts.

Etymology

From pale + face, a supposed calque from a Native American language. First appears in print c. 1797.

Example Sentences

• "Dere is Great Wicked Spirit, too... Heart grow hard. Great pleasure was to kill pale-face. Dat feeling last, Blossom, till I see you. Feel like fader to you, and don't want your scalp... Still want all udder pale-face scalp. Want Bourdon scalp much as any."
• "The hearts of the palefaces would not thrill to these superstitions of the red men, though we spoke of them in the centre of the haunted region."
• "The dusky hunters "guyed" the palefaces who could not do as well as they with their primitive weapons, even though the fire spouted from the iron tubes and the balls that could not be seen by the eye carried death farther than did the missiles launched by the natives."