Skip to main content
squaw

squaw

15 9.9
A disrespectful word for a Native American woman
  • noun
  • /skwɔ/
  • Slur
translation icon : [Término ofensivo para mujer indígena]
  • The white squaw was now looking out of the wigwam to see if the coast was clear.
  • squaws and braves
  • squaws among many Indian

Including when he killed his squaw outside of a restaurant in the Valley.

Examples

  • Tell these squaws I come in peace.

  • There was this Indian squaw, and she was rowin' a canoe with her baby in it.

  • Married to a squaw, he was more Indian than white now.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Presently came a squaw and a little girl.

    Academic text (2008)
  • So Coleman's buying himself a squaw, eh?

  • "Booze peddler and his squaw woman is more like it," Pap said.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Anyway, we're a pretty tight-knit tribe here, but there's always room for one more squaw.

  • In the story, the hero fell in love with a brave squaw who was skilled in hunting.

  • The village celebrated the return of the squaw who had been away for many moons.

  • Her grandmother, a wise squaw, shared ancient stories around the fire.

Compounds

old squaw
  • NSFW
9.9

A sea duck with a long tail found in northern North America

squaw corn
  • Archaic
9.6

A type of corn with soft, starchy kernels

squaw root
  • NSFW
9.9

A tall herb with blue berries and a thick knotty root once used as medicine

squaw-bush
  • NSFW
9.9

A shrub that grows in dry California areas with three-part smelly leaves and edible fruit

squaw grass
  • Archaic
9.9

A plant from western North America with stiff grasslike leaves and spikes of creamy white flowers

A small marsh bush with pale berries that deer eat and people avoid

squaw man
  • Slur
9.9

An offensive old name for a white man married to a Native American woman

Surface Forms

squaw singular
squaws plural

Etymology

The word squaw comes from an Algonquian word squa meaning 'woman'. A helpful way to remember it is that it started as a simple word for 'woman'. But European settlers used it in disrespectful ways, so today squaw is considered an offensive word for Native American women.