Mohawk

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A style where the hair is shaved on both sides with a strip of hair left standing upright in the center ; a Native American tribe originally from the northeastern part of North America known for their longhouses and cultural heritage ; a river located in New York state, flowing into the Hudson River
2. A haircut featuring closely shaved sides and a central tuft of hair that stands erect ; an indigenous group from northeastern North America with a distinct language and traditions ; a waterway in New York state that serves as a tributary to the Hudson
3. A distinctive hairdo with the sides trimmed short and a vertical lock of hair running along the scalp's middle ; a northeastern North American Native American people famed for their involvement in the Iroquois Confederacy ; a New York state river named after the Native American tribe, feeding into the Hudson

Etymology: The people now called the Mohawk named themselves Kanienʼkehá꞉kaʼ, "people of the flint," but the name most English speakers know was given to them by outsiders. It came from the Dutch "Mohawk," which in turn was an exonym borrowed from the Narragansett word "Mohowaúgsuck" or "Mauquàuog," meaning "they eat (animate things)," or "cannibals." The Roger Williams dictionary of 1643 records the Narragansett term, and the Mohawk language itself has no /m/ sound, which is one reason the name sounds so foreign to its owners. The word's later life has nothing to do with the people it named. The hairstyle, a strip of hair left standing across the scalp with the sides shaved away, took the name in the twentieth century, apparently because its ridge was imagined to resemble the men of that nation's distinctive crest. The haircut sense is a noun, and the verb form, meaning to cut hair in this style, is built from it.

Synonyms: hairstyle, haircut, spike, crest, tuft