Odawa
/ˈoʊ.də.wə/noun
An Algonquian-speaking Indigenous people of the Great Lakes region, also known as Ottawa.
Did you know?Odawa is the English spelling of an Indigenous ethnonym; it is commonly linked to the Ottawa/Odawa branch of the Anishinaabe, and the name has been historically associated with trade and exchange in the Great Lakes network.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Algonquian
PA
*adawe
“to trade, buy, or sell”
Pre-Contact
Indigenous
Odawa
“a people identified with trading and exchange”
17th Century
French
Outaouais
“French rendering of the Odawa/Ottawa people and related place names”
18th Century
English
Ottawa
“English form used for the people, river, and later the city”
Modern English
English
Odawa
“the contemporary ethnonym used by the people themselves”
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