Penobscot
/pəˈnɒb.skət/noun
A member of a Native American people of Maine and New Brunswick, or the Algonquian language they speak.
Did you know?Penobscot is an English form of an Indigenous place and people name from the Wabanaki/Algonquian world, and its exact original meaning is not securely known from standard sources.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Contact / Indigenous
Algonquian
*penawapskewi?
“A reconstructed or uncertain original form sometimes proposed in scholarship, likely referring to a place with rocky or ledge-like features; the exact source form is not securely established.”
17th Century
English
Penobscot
“An English rendering of the Indigenous river, region, and people name in Maine.”
18th Century
English
Penobscot
“Used for the Penobscot River and for the people living along it.”
Modern English
English
Penobscot
“The standard English name for the people, language, river, and related regional references.”
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