Seawan \Sea"wan\, Seawant \Sea"want\, n.
The name used by the Algonquin Indians for the shell beads
which passed among the Indians as money.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Seawan was of two kinds; wampum, white, and
suckanhock, black or purple, -- the former having
half the value of the latter. Many writers, however,
use the terms seawan and wampum indiscriminately.
--Bartlett.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Wampum \Wam"pum\, n. [North American Indian wampum, wompam, from
the Mass. w['o]mpi, Del. w[=a]pe, white.]
Beads made of shells, used by the North American Indians as
money, and also wrought into belts, etc., as an ornament.
[1913 Webster]
Round his waist his belt of wampum. --Longfellow.
[1913 Webster]
Girded with his wampum braid. --Whittier.
[1913 Webster]
Note: These beads were of two kinds, one white, and the other
black or dark purple. The term wampum is properly
applied only to the white; the dark purple ones are
called suckanhock. See Seawan. "It [wampum] consisted
of cylindrical pieces of the shells of testaceous
fishes, a quarter of an inch long, and in diameter less
than a pipestem, drilled . . . so as to be strung upon
a thread. The beads of a white color, rated at half the
value of the black or violet, passed each as the
equivalent of a farthing in transactions between the
natives and the planters." --Palfrey.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
wampum
n 1: informal terms for money [syn: boodle, bread, cabbage,
clams, dinero, dough, gelt, kale, lettuce,
lolly, lucre, loot, moolah, pelf, scratch, shekels,
simoleons, sugar]
2: small cylindrical beads made from polished shells and
fashioned into strings or belts; used by certain Native
American peoples as jewelry or currency [syn: peag, wampumpeag]
WordNet (r) 2.0
73 Moby Thesaurus words for "wampum":
anklet, armlet, bangle, beads, bijou, blunt, boodle, bracelet,
brass, bread, breastpin, brooch, bucks, cabbage, cash, chain,
chaplet, charm, chatelaine, chips, circle, coin, coronet, cowrie,
crown, currency, diadem, dinero, dough, earring, fob, gelt, gem,
gilt, grease, green, green stuff, greenbacks, jack, jewel, kale,
legal tender, locket, lucre, mazuma, moolah, mopus, necklace,
nose ring, oil of palms, ointment, oof, ooftish, pin,
precious stone, rhinestone, rhino, ring, roanoke, rocks, sewan,
shekels, simoleons, spondulics, stickpin, stone, sugar,
the needful, tiara, tin, torque, wristband, wristlet
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
Wampum, PA (borough, FIPS 80880)
Location: 40.88647 N, 80.33880 W
Population (1990): 666 (308 housing units)
Area: 2.4 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 16157
U.S. Gazetteer (1990)
Wampum, PA -- U.S. borough in Pennsylvania
Population (2000): 678
Housing Units (2000): 310
Land area (2000): 0.921043 sq. miles (2.385490 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.042833 sq. miles (0.110937 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.963876 sq. miles (2.496427 sq. km)
FIPS code: 80880
Located within: Pennsylvania (PA), FIPS 42
Location: 40.888657 N, 80.339650 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 16157
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Wampum, PA
Wampum
U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000)
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