Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1610s
Opossum
from apasum
- Meaning
- A marsupial of the Americas.
- Source word
- apasum
- Route into English
- Powhatan *apasum* ("white animal," from its pale fur) → English in early Virginia. John Smith recorded the word in 1608. The informal short form "possum" is a later American innovation.
- Arrived
- 1610s
From Indigenous languages
A loose group: Nahuatl, Taino, Algonquian, Guugu Yimithirr, and others. Colonial contact produced many loans; the speakers were often systematically dispossessed of the land the loanwords described.
English borrows.
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