Quileute

[ kwil-yoot, kwil-uh-yoot ]

noun

, plural Qui·leutes, (especially collectively) Qui·leute

1. a member of an Indigenous people of western Washington State.
2. the language of the Quileute, also spoken by the Hoh.

adjective

1. of or relating to the Quileute or their language.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Quileute¹

First recorded in 1890–95; from Quilleute (a language of the extinct Chimakuan family of languages formerly spoken on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State) kʷoʔlí·yot’, the name of a village at La Push, a small unincorporated community located at the mouth of the Quillayute River in Clallam County, Washington State