Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Lemooto


LEMOOTO

[le-MOO’-to] or [lam’-MU-to] โ€” noun.

Meaning: Sheep; mutton.

Origin: French, les moutons, โ€œsheepโ€

Sometimes spelled as lemoto or limoto, it refers to sheep, and naturally all things related to them, such as โ€œman lemootoโ€ (ram), “klootchman lemooto” (ewe),  โ€œtenas lemootoโ€ (lamb), and “lemooto house” (fold, sheepfold). The word was also used for โ€œmuttonโ€, though if one wanted to specify, they could say โ€œlemooto itlwillieโ€ or โ€œlemooto yaka itlwillie”.

The English word โ€œsheepโ€ was also used from time to time, such as in โ€œhiyu sheepโ€ (flock), โ€œsheep yaka tupso lemooto yaksoโ€ (wool), and the heavily English โ€œsheep yaka meatโ€ (mutton)


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