wigwam

What it means

1. A dwelling having an arched framework overlaid with bark, hides, or mats, used by Native Americans in the northeastern United States.
2. datedpossiblyAny more or less similar dwelling used by indigenous people in other parts of the world.

   The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and dimensions, a haycock. It merely consists of a few broken branches stuck in the ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one side with a few tufts of grass and rushes.

   1845 edition, Charles Darwin, Journal and Remarks (The Voyage of the Beagle)

   1 more example

   Their houſes or wigwams, which they call carbets, are built as I have already deſcribed thoſe of the negroes; but inſtead of being covered with the leaves of the manicole-tree, they are covered with the leaves of rattans or jointed canes, here called tas, which grow in cluſters in all marſhy places: [...]

   1796, J[ohn] G[abriel] Stedman, chapter XV, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; […], volume I, London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], and J. Edwards, […], →OCLC, page 388

In a sentence

Their houſes or wigwams, which they call carbets, are built as I have already deſcribed thoſe of the negroes; but inſtead of being covered with the leaves of the manicole-tree, they are covered with the leaves of rattans or jointed canes, here called tas, which grow in cluſters in all marſhy places: [...]

1796, J[ohn] G[abriel] Stedman, chapter XV, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; […], volume I, London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], and J. Edwards, […], →OCLC, page 388

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Algonquian*wi·kiwa·ʔmi“house”
2. Penobscotwigwom“house”
3. Abenakiwigwôm“house”
4. Englishwigwam

Borrowed from Abenaki wigwôm (“house”) or Penobscot wigwom (“house”), from Proto-Algonquian *wi·kiwa·ʔmi (“house”). Doublet of wickiup.