Conestoga

Meanings

proper noun

A river in Pennsylvania, United States.

nounConestoga (plural Conestogas or Conestoga)

plural Conestogas

historicalSynonym of Susquehannock, a member of a North Iroquoian people formerly living in Pennsylvania and Maryland.First known use 17th c.
Synonyms: Susquehannock
historicalA type of draft horse developed in Pennsylvania.First known use 19th c.
abbreviationellipsishistoricalEllipsis of Conestoga wagon.First known use 20th c.
Conestoga axles creaked under their loads as the barrels of molasses and bacon and meal rattled in the wagon beds.
2006, Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder, Abacus, published 2014, page 32

Synonyms & antonyms

nounSynonym of Susquehannock, a member of a North Iroquoian people formerly living in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Similar

Susquehannock

More synonyms by meaning

nouna large wagon with broad wheels and an arched canvas top; used by the United States pioneers to cross the prairies in the 19th century

Broader

wagon waggon

Also see

conestoga wagon covered wagon prairie schooner susquehannock

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Susquehannockkanahstó:ke
EnglishConestoga

From Susquehannock kanahstó:ke (the name of a settlement, now Conestoga, Pennsylvania). According to Mithun, British colonists based the name on the Mohawk word tekanastoge (“place of the upright pole”). It may also be the anglicized form of Gandastogue, which may have been close to what the Susquehannock called themselves.

More words from Susquehannock

Full word history & related roots →