petun

P3E1T1U1N1

noun

Tobacco, especially in the context of its early acquisition from Native Americans by the French.

Scrabble 7

Meanings

petun1

noun
  1. historicalrareTobacco, especially in the context of its early acquisition from Native Americans by the French.

Petun2

nounPetun (plural Petuns or Petun)

plural Petuns

  1. historicalA member of the Iroquoian "tobacco people", or Tionontati, a First Nation located on the southwest edge of the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, west of the Huron territory in Southern Ontario.

    We might always wonder about when the first meeting between a Petun and a European actually took place. Could there have been some Petun travellers in the St. Lawrence Valley visiting with St. Lawrence Iroquoians ...

    2014, Charles Garrad, Petun to Wyandot: The Ontario Petun from the Sixteenth Century, University of Ottawa Press, →ISBN, page 155
    1 more example

    During the 1650s, the Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas expanded their war against the Hurons to include the Petuns, Neutrals, and Eries, in part because these Indian nations offered asylum to refugee bands of Hurons, but also because ...

    2006, Daniel P. Barr, Unconquered: The Iroquois League at War in Colonial America, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 50

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

petun · noun

  1. Tupian
  2. Frenchpétun
  3. Englishpetun

From French pétun, from Tupian.

Full word history & related roots →

Petun · noun

  1. Frenchpétun
  2. EnglishPetun

From French pétun or English petun, an early name for tobacco, which the people grew and traded.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

petun. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/petun

MLA

“petun.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/petun. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “petun,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/petun.

Source: petun on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.