Etymology
Europeans in North America used to refer to the Inuit as Eskimos, but the people consider that term pejorative. The colonists and explorers adopted the term "Eskimo" from the Algonquin-speaking peoples' ethonym for the Inuit, as they encountered the Algonquian peoples first when they landed in the coastal areas. It means either "eaters of raw flesh" or "people who live up the coast." The word Inuit is the autonym, the name which the people use for themselves and it means "the people." Its singular form is Inuk.
Read more about this topic: Inuit Culture
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)