Loanword catalogue by user

Chocolate

ratomspotify — 2025-02-20 04:58:56 UTC

During the 1520s, Hernan Cortes and the rest of the conquistadors ransacked and traded with various Aztec cities and establishments (Carney, 1997).

As he observed the society around him, he took an eye to the popularity of a specific "bitter drink" named chocolatl, and the cacao beans used to make it. Montezuma, the emperor, drank chocolatl from a golden cup. The beans and drink were valued enough to serve as a currency. Naturally, Cortes returned to Spain with cacao beans in tow. Throughout the 1500s, "hot chocolate" grew in popularity in Spain. The chocolate fad had travelled to the rest of Europe by the 1600s. Today, chocolate production remains a major product of the US and international confectionery industry.

Appaloosa

ratomspotify — 2025-02-20 05:00:04 UTC

An appaloosa is a specific horse breed. The term comes from the breed’s origins in the Nez Perce tribe, who settled along the Palouse River in Idaho, which was particularly strong terrain for riding and breeding horses. During the westward expansion, colonists began pressing the tribe to give up their land, and tensions came to a head with a war and subsequent thousand-mile chase on horseback across Montana and Washington. They surrendered, and amongst the thousands of other casualties of war, 1100 of their horses were taken by the US government.

Appaloosas entered the popular eye as a circus animal and eventually their coat became desirable for horse-breeders.

Powwow

ratomspotify — 2025-02-20 05:00:10 UTC

In Narragansett, "powwaw" was used to refer to a spiritual leader, literally meaning "one who dreams". When George Waymouth, an explorer of the Maine coast in 1605, observed one of these religious gatherings, he transcribed their chanting of "powwow" as "baugh, waugh". Understanding little of the ceremony, Waymouth and his company applied to the term to any gathering of indigenous people. For some time, the term was used in a derogatory sense amongst colonists.

In the Early 20th century, following military loss and major deprivation of resources, various tribes organized meetings and intertribal to bolster their community and keep in touch. They termed these "powwows" as well. Although the term serves as a regional lexicon for today's colonists, it serves as a major social and cultural occassion.

Squash

ratomspotify — 2025-03-12 15:59:58 UTC

Squash was an agricultural staple across indigenous cultures pre-contact. One of the word’s first English records is by Roger Williams in 1643, who praised the vegetable for allowing them to survive through winters and famines (2). Records show many colonists around New England depended on squash cultivation (taught to them by surrounding indigenous cultures) to survive. The word was taken from the Algonquian language Narragansett as askutasquash, meaning “eaten raw/uncooked” (2).

Maize

ratomspotify — 2025-03-12 16:00:01 UTC

Although today often called “corn” (from the Germanic word for “cereal grain”), the plant was originally introduced to Spanish colonists as mahiz from the Taíno, an Arawakan tribe dispersed across the Caribbean (2).

Colonists instead chose to call the grain “Indian corn”. Eventually this was shortened to “corn” (2).

Corn was very common in the Americas. There are various records of colonists stealing or being gifted corn from nearby indigenous tribes: “At the risk of jeopardizing the friendship of the natives, the Pilgrims carted off all the corn they could carry... Bradford credited the stolen seed with saving the colony from possible starvation" (1)

Kayak

ratomspotify — 2025-03-25 03:39:11 UTC

Originally from qajaq, “man’s boat” or “hunter’s boat” in various Inuktitut dialects. Pre-contact, the vehicle was used for navigating along inland streams and hunting further out into the sea for seals, sea lions, or whales (2).

Records in the 1420s from Scotland and Norway describe encounters with men washed up on beaches in small boats covered in animal skin (i.e. kayaks) (2).

Following colonization, in 1865 Englishman John MacGregor decided to appropriate the technology, building a kayak of his own and starting the practice of recreational kayaking in Europe. It was quickly adopted in Germany and throughout the US and in 1936 was an Olympic sport. Today in the US, there are clubs and establishments for slalom kayaks, recreational kayaks, and whitewater kayaks, forming a significant part of the US nature tourism industry (2).