51Թ

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squaw

[ skwaw ]

noun

  1. Older Use: Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a North American Indian woman, especially a wife.
  2. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
    1. a contemptuous term used to refer to a wife.
    2. a contemptuous term used to refer to any woman or girl.


squaw

/ ɔː /

noun

  1. offensive.
    a North American Indian woman
  2. slang.
    a woman or wife
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Sensitive Note

It can be very offensive when members of the dominant culture appropriate piecemeal bits of language to imitate or perform impressions of an ethnic or racial minority. Borrowed words like firewater, squaw, and wigwam, or imitative words like how were once used for comedic effect, but they are now considered insensitive to Native Americans and their cultures.
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51Թ History and Origins

Origin of squaw1

An Americanism dating back to 1625–35; from Massachusett ( English spelling) squa, ussqua “woman, younger woman,” from Proto-Algonquian θɱ·ɲ (unattested)
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51Թ History and Origins

Origin of squaw1

C17: of Algonquian origin; compare Natick squa female creature
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Officials have approved the removal of the derogatory term “squaw” from more than 30 geographic features and place names on California lands, according to an announcement Friday by the state Natural Resources Agency.

From

For years, Native American residents in Fresno County have campaigned to remove the word “squaw” from the name of an unincorporated town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

From

This year, the State Committee on Geographic Names renamed nine places using the term “squaw” with names proposed by Washington tribes.

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The renamed sites are in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, completing a yearlong process to remove the historically offensive word “squaw” from geographic names across the country.

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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Native American cabinet official, formally declared “squaw” a derogatory term and announced steps to remove it from federal government use and rename other derogatory place names.

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