Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Eskimo |
EskimoNoun1. A member of a people inhabiting the Arctic (northern Canada or Greenland or Alaska or eastern Siberia); the Algonquians called them Eskimo (`eaters of raw flesh') but they call themselves the Inuit (`the people'). 2. The language spoken by the Eskimo people. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Eskimo" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1861. (references) |
Note: Eskimo \Es"ki*mo\, noun; plural Eskimos. [Originally applied by the Algonquins to the Northern Indians, and meaning eaters of raw flesh.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Inuit (singular, Inuk; also, generally vulgarly, Eskimo) is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples of the Arctic who descended from the Thule. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference defines its constitutency to include Canadian Inuit and Inuvialuit, Greenland's Kalaallit people, Alaska's Inupiat and Yupik people, and Russian Yupik.
Canadian Inuit live primarily in Nunavut, Nunavik (a region in northern Quebec defined by the James Bay Agreement) and in Nunatsiavut (a region in Labrador whose borders are yet to be fixed.) The Inuvialuit live primarily in the Mackenzie River delta, on Banks Island and part of Victoria Island in the Northwest Territories. There have been Inuit settlements in Yukon, especially at Herschel Island, but there are none at present. Alaskan Inupiat live on the North Slope of Alaska, while the Yupik live in western Alaska and a part of Chukotka Autonomous Area in Russia.
Occupation
The Inuit were -- and many still are -- hunters, who hunt whale, walrus, and seal by kayak or by waiting at their airholes in the ice. They used igloos as hunting or emergency shelters. They made and make ingenious use of animal skins in their clothing (e.g. anorak). Dog sleds, known as qamutiit, were and are used for travel pulled by Inuit Sled Dogs in a fan hitch, though snowmobiles have largely replaced this mode of travel.
Language
In Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit people, "Inuit" means "the people". The name "Eskimo" is widely believed to derive from a Cree word meaning "eaters of raw meat." Many Inuit therefore consider this name to be derogatory. The actual origin of the word is unclear. The English word comes from the French "Esquimaux", however, how the word came into the French language remains unclear. It may have come from a Cree word meaning the netting used in snowshoes.Among many who are not Inuit, the word "Eskimo" is falling out of use. Much of the impetus behind this change probably traces to the books of Farley Mowat, particularly People of the Deer and The Desperate People.
"Eskimo"
In Alaska, according to a webpage from Libraries of the University of Connecticut, the Inuit continue to be called "Eskimo" more commonly particularly in order to distinguish them from other aboriginal groups of Alaska: the Aleuts and various other Native Americans (e.g., Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida) people.
Classification
The Inuit living in North America were formerly classified together with other Native Americans, but they are now considered to be an entirely separate ethnic group who arrived in North America a few millennia after the latter did, properly around 500 C.E as the Thule. Accordingly, in Canada the Inuit are not considered First Nations, although they are included in the term "Native Peoples", "First Peoples", or "Aboriginal Peoples" along with Indians and Métis.Early European explorers continually called all the people they met in the area, as they explored from east to west, "Eskimos". Their culture is broadly the same over all the area, although the eastern groups speak Inupik dialect and the western, Yupik. Kinship culture also differs east and west, as eastern Inuit lived with cousins of both mother and father, but western Inuit lived in paternal kinship groups.
Losing the traditions
Since the European arrival, racist and misguided government policies caused a great deal of damage to the Inuit way of life, causing mass death and other suffering. Circa 1970, strong Inuit leaders came forward and pushed for respect for the Inuit and their territories. One of the resulting land-claims agreements created the Canadian territory of Nunavut, the largest land-claims agreement in Canadian history. In recent years, circumpolar cultural and political groups have come together to promote the Inuit people and to fight against ecological problems, such as the greenhouse effect and resulting global warming, which heavily affects the Inuit population due to the melting and thinning of the arctic ice and die-offs of arctic mammals. Nunavut premier Paul Okalik took the lead in this regard in a First Ministers' meeting discussing the Kyoto Accord.
Culture
One of the most famous Inuit artists is Pitseolak Ashoona. Susan Aglukark is a popular Canadian singer. In 2002 the feature film Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner from Isuma Productions (with all dialogue in the Inuktitut language and written, filmed, produced, directed, and acted almost entirely by Inuit of Igloolik) was released world wide to great critical and popular acclaim.(to do list: culture past and present, spirituality, customs, etc)
See also
- Inuktitut
- Native American
- Greenland
- Canadian provinces and territories
- Northwest Territories
- Yukon
- Aleutian Islands
- Inuit throat singing
Further reading
- The Eskimos - Ernest S. Burch Jr.
External links
- Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, the representative body of Inuit in Canada
- Religion and demography of the Inuit
- The Inuvialuit
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Inuit."
Synonyms: EskimoSynonyms: Esquimau (n), Inuit (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Eskimo |
| English words defined with "Eskimo": Doughbird ♦ Eskimo dog, Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo-Aleut language, Eskimos, Esquimau ♦ igloo, iglu, Innuit, Inuit ♦ Lake Clark National Park ♦ sealskin tent ♦ tupek, tupik ♦ Wolf dog. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Eskimo": AIEA, Alaska Native race/ethnic categories ♦ Ethnic origin. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Eskimo" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (Eskimo), Dutch (Eskimo), Esperanto (Eskimo), Finnish (Eskimo), German (eskimo), Indonesian (eskimo), Italian (parka), Turkish (amerind, amerindian, eskimo, esquimau). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I should make it Eskimo dictionaries (The Man Who Never Was; writing credit: Nigel Balchin; Ewen Montagu) | |
Lyrics | But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here (Mighty Quinn; performing artist: The Hollies) Ev'ry Hottenhot and ev'ry Eskimo. (We Will All Go Together When We Go; performing artist: Tom Lehrer) | |
Clever | Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter: Eskimo Pi. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Eskimo (2003) The Owl and the Raven: An Eskimo Legend (1973) Part 2: Eskimo Winter People of the Seal (1971) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Public Health nurse with Eskimo and dog team preparing to make a call on local residents. Credit: CDC. |  | The "Eskimo" Nebula (NGC 2392). Credit: NASA. |
 | Station Eskimo on Honduras - Guatemala border Border determination a combination of astro and triangulation work Astro party of Joseph Lushene. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | This youngster wanted to grow up and be just like Dad. An Eskimo toddler dreams of hunting on the Bering Sea with his father. F&WS 1166. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Eskimo woman stringing fish to dry. F&WS B-60220. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Eskimo diversion - flying high above the shore. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | Lee Eason of the Seattle office observing angles with Eskimo helper. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | Eskimo woman and child ice fishing in the Bering Sea. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | The walrus "coup." Eskimo lancing the exhausted walrus Saint Lawrence Island, Bering Sea. Mahlemut dresses, bidarka, baidar, &c. Drawing by H. W. Elliott. Credit: National Marine Fisheries Historical Image Collection. |  | U.S. Public Health Service Hospital, Bethel, AK. : Doctor Keefer talks with an Eskimo woman. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Eskimo" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 59.32% of the time. "Eskimo" is used about 59 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 59.32% | 35 | 58,339 |
| Noun (common) | 38.98% | 23 | 72,767 |
| Noun (singular) | 1.69% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 59 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name | Country | Name |
| Greece | Biometal Eskimo Industrial Co. | USA | Eskimo Pie Corporation |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "Eskimo": eskimo curlew ♦ Eskimo dog. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "Eskimo": Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo-Aleut language. | |
Ending with "Eskimo": half-eskimo. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "Eskimo"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | Eskimo. (various references) | |
Albanian | eskimez (esquimau), gjuha eskimeze. (various references) | |
Basque | eskimale. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | ескимоски (amerind), ескимос (esquimau, husky). (various references) | |
Chinese | 爱斯基摩-阿留"语 (Esquimau). (various references) | |
Czech | eskymák (esquimau). (various references) | |
Dutch | Eskimo. (various references) | |
Esperanto | eskimo. (various references) | |
Farsi | اسکیمو. (various references) | |
Finnish | eskimo (inuit). (various references) | |
French | esquimaude, esquimau. (various references) | |
German | eskimo. (various references) | |
Greek | κοστούμι τύπου εσκιμό, εσκιμώοσ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | אסקימו. (various references) | |
Hungarian | eszkimó. (various references) | |
Icelandic | Eskimói. (various references) | |
Indonesian | eskimo. (various references) | |
Italian | eschimese (husky). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | エコロジー運動 (ecological movement, Edison, ego, egotism, egotist, egotistic, Egypt, Esaki diode, escalate, escalation, escalator, escalope, ESCAP, sado-masochism, Save Our Souls, science fiction, SF, shallot, sister, sketch, snail, Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, SOS). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | エスキモー . (various references) | |
Korean | 에스키모인 (Eskimos, Esquimau). (various references) | |
Manx | Eskimagh. (various references) | |
Occitan | inoit *. (various references) | |
Papiamen | èskimo. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eskimoay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | esquimó (esquimau). (various references) | |
Romanian | eschimos (esquimau), limba eschimosã. (various references) | |
Russian | эскимосский (husky), эскимос эскимосский, эскимос (esquimau), эскимо. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | eskimski jezik (husky), eskimski (husky), eskim (esquimau, husky). (various references) | |
Spanish | esquimal (esquimau). (various references) | |
Swedish | eskimå (esquimau). (various references) | |
Thai | ชาวเอสกิโม, าษาเอสกิโม. (various references) | |
Turkish | eskimoca (esquimau), eskimo (amerind, amerindian, esquimau). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | ескімоський, ескімоска (esquimau), ескімос (esquimau). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Eskimo" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ekimov, Ekofo, Ikimi, Meskito, Osimo. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-i-k-m-o-s" | |
-1 letter: mikes, mokes, skimo, smoke. | |
-2 letters: kois, mike, mise, miso, moke, mosk, okes, semi, sike, skim, soke, some. | |
-3 letters: ems, ism, koi, kos, mis, mos, oes, oke, oms, ose, sei, sim, ski, som. | |
-4 letters: em, es, is, me, mi, mo, oe, om, os, si, so. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-i-k-m-o-s" | |
+1 letter: irksome, misyoke, smokier. | |
+2 letters: homesick, koumises, misspoke, misyoked, misyokes, moleskin, monikers, mosslike, sheikdom, smokiest, tokenism. | |
+3 letters: antismoke, besmoking, embosking, foremilks, irksomely, kaiserdom, kakiemons, kilomoles, kinswomen, koumisses, miscooked, misreckon, misspoken, mockeries, moleskins, monickers, monkeries, mosaicked, overmilks, semiworks, sheikdoms, sheikhdom, skimobile, smokelike, smokiness, timeworks, tokenisms. | |
+4 letters: antismoker, biomarkers, cockneyism, kaiserdoms, kilometers, kinetosome, ministroke, misreckons, monkfishes, mosaiclike, motorbikes, noisemaker, sheikhdoms, skimobiles. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Names: Company Usage 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
