TENAS [TEN’-as] — adjective. [ten’-AS] or [dun’-US] (Grand Ronde pronunciation) — noun. Meaning: Small; few; little; lesser; weak; young; a child; a youth Origin: From Nootka Jargon taná(s) ‘child, little’ < Nuu-chah-nulth t’an’ais ‘child’ The opposite of ‘skookum’, ‘hyas’, and ‘hiyu’ in differing contexts. In the Lower Columbia and Grand…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Puss-Puss
PUSS-PUSS [puss’-puss] general, [pish’-pish] Puget Sound — noun. Meaning: A cat. Also used for cougar, lynx, bobcat, etc. Origin: English, An informal term of address for a cat. From a common Germanic word for cat, perhaps ultimately imitative of a sound made to get its attention. While the term for…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Hiyu
HIYU [hi-YU’] or [hy-IU’] — adjective, noun. Meaning: many; much; lots of; greatly; heap; plenty; plentiful; plural; enough (to go around), abundance Origin: From Nootka Jargon hayú ‘many, much’ < Nuu-chah-nulth hayu ‘ten’ or ‘aya ‘to be lots’; Makah Nootkan khayu ‘ten’; Toquaht, aiya Used with reference to quantity and…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Saghalie
SAGHALIE [SAGH-a-lie] or occasionally [SAH’-ha-lie] — adjective. Meaning: Up; above; high; heaven; sky; celestial; top; uppermost; over (above); upwards; lofty; holy. Origin: Chinook, sakhali; Clatsop, ukhshakhali. Up; above; high. Sometime rendered as ‘sagalie’, ‘sagalee’, ‘saqalie’, and even ‘sahhalie’ or ‘sahali’, this word was usually pronounced as if it were spelled…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Hyas
HYAS [hy-AS’] or [hay-ASH]— adjective, adverb. Meaning: Big, great, vast, large, auspicious, powerful, important, celebrated, very. Origin: Of obscure origin. Possible corruption of Nuu-chah-nulth iyahish “many”, “much” While similar in use to the word skookum, hyas generally has connotations of greatness, importance, or auspiciousness rather than outright strength or power. “Hyas…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Opitsah
OPITSAH [O’-pit’-sah] or [UP-tsah] — noun. Meaning: A knife; dagger; razor; something sharp Origin: Chinook óptsakh “a knife”. The word matches one of two Chinookan nouns for “knife” or “iron”. While the English word “knife” was occasionally used from time to time, as seen in “hyas knife kopa hay” (scythe),…...
