wampum

plural wampums · alternative wompam

1. uncountableSmall cylindrical beads made from polished shells (especially white ones) which have been strung together, formerly used by Native American peoples of eastern North America for various purposes including as jewellery and money, and for record-keeping; (countable, archaic) one such bead.

   [A]mong the Red Men of America the giving of the white belt of wampum was the deepest pledge of honor; […]

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Whiteness of the Whale”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 208

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   From his lodge went Hiawatha, / Dressed for travel, armed for hunting; / Dressed in deer-skin shirt and leggings, / Richly wrought with quills and wampum; / On his head his eagle-feathers, / Round his waist his belt of wampum, […]

   1855 November 10, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis”, in The Song of Hiawatha, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 51

   These title deeds are of wampum, the grant of an Indian chief to the first Dowell, who left Farnham in Surrey in company with William Penn.

   1915, Ford Madox Hueffer [i.e., Ford Madox Ford], chapter I, in The Good Soldier […], Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1972 (1982 printing), →ISBN, part I, page 12

   Synonyms: hiaqua, peag, porcelain, seawan, seawant

2. slanguncountableMoney.

   [M]ore and more people in the folk world suddenly discovered there was more than a little wampum to be made by discovering a trace of Indian blood in their past and donning the traditional headband.

   1965 December, Phil Ochs, “That was the Year that Weren’t”, in Cavalier, New York, N.Y.: DuGent Publishing Corporation, →OCLC; republished in David Cohen, editor, I’m Gonna Say It Now: The Writings of Phil Ochs, Lanham, Md.: Backbeat Books, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2020, →ISBN, page 129

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   [Kenneth O'Keefe, letter] Have that seven quid. Or else I'll be kaput. […] [Sebastian Dangerfield, letter in reply] Kenneth, we all want wampum. And as you must know, if only I had some I would be only too willing to share. But the only thing I have here is a pile of business magazines which I am going to burn for a fire.

   1955, J[ames] P[atrick] Donleavy, chapter 17, in The Ginger Man, London: Corgi Books, Transworld Publishers, published 1963, page 192

   Synonyms: ackers, bees and honey, blunt, bones, brass, bread, bread and honey, Bugs Bunny

3. abbreviationcountableellipsisobsoleteEllipsis of wampum snake (“the common kingsnake or eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula)”).