Mahican

American  

[muh-hee-kuhn] / məˈhi kən /

noun

plural

Mahicans,

plural

Mahican

1. a tribe or confederacy of North American Indians of the Algonquian family, centralized formerly in the upper Hudson valley.

2. a member of this tribe or confederacy.

3. the extinct Algonquian language of the Mahican Indians.

---

Mahican British  

/ məˈhiːkən /

noun

1. a variant of Mohican

---

Etymology

Origin of Mahican

First recorded in 1605–15; self-designation of the Mahican people; literally, “person (people) of the tidal estuary (of the Hudson River)”; cognate with Munsee Delaware ma·hí·kan; compare -a·hi·kan in kihta·hí·kan “ocean,” with kiht- “great”); the spelling variant Mohican was popularized by James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1826)