Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural Al·gon·quins, (especially collectively) Al·gon·quin for 1, 3.
- a member of a group of North American Indian tribes formerly along the Ottawa River and the northern tributaries of the St. Lawrence.
- their speech, a dialect of Ojibwa, of the Algonquian family of languages.
- Algonquian.
adjective
noun
- plural -quins, -quin, -kins or -kin a member of a North American Indian people formerly living along the St Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers in Canada
- the language of this people, a dialect of Ojibwa
noun, adjective
- a variant of Algonquian
one of an Indian people living near the Ottawa River in Canada, 1620s, from French Algonquin, perhaps a contraction of Algoumequin, from Micmac algoomeaking “at the place of spearing fish and eels.” But Bright suggests Maliseet (Algonquian) elægomogwik “they are our relatives or allies.”
Algonquian (1885) was the name taken by ethnologists to describe a large group of North American Indian peoples, including this tribe. Algonquin Hotel (59 W. 44th St., Manhattan) opened 1902 and named by manager Frank Case for the tribe that had lived in that area. A circle of journalists, authors, critics, and wits began meeting there daily in 1919 and continued through the twenties; they called themselves “The Vicious Circle,” but to others they became “The Round Table.”