wampum
part of speech
noun (wampum — uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) Small beads made from white and purple shells, strung together or woven into belts by Native American peoples of eastern North America. tree →
2) Wampum belts were used to record agreements, tell histories and mark important promises between nations. tree →
3) Later, European settlers also used wampum as a kind of money, so the word sometimes means shell money. tree →
4) (old slang, US) Money in general — now rare and can sound disrespectful. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history lessons about Native Americans (for example the Haudenosaunee, also called Iroquois, and the Wampanoag) wampum shows that these peoples kept records and treaties without paper. In stories it marks a peace treaty or a solemn promise. Phrases: «wampum belt», «strings of wampum».
examples
- The museum showed a wampum belt made of purple and white shell beads. tree →
- Wampum belts were used to remember a treaty between two nations. tree →
- The beads were made from quahog clam shells. tree →
- Our teacher said wampum was much more than money. tree →
- A speaker held up a string of wampum before giving an important message. tree →
- The pattern on the belt showed two paths side by side. tree →
note
Uncountable: «some wampum», «a wampum belt», not «a wampum». It is a word from Algonquian languages. Treat it respectfully: wampum is still important to Native nations today, so do not call it «just beads» or «Indian money».
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «wampum» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.