Shoshone
/ʃoʊˈʃoʊni/noun
A member of a Native American people of the western United States, or the Uto-Aztecan language they speak.
Did you know?Shoshone is an exonym in English for a people whose own self-designation is commonly rendered as Newe or Nuwu, showing how colonial languages often preserve names without preserving their original meaning.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Contact
Shoshone
Newe / Nuwu
“The people; the self-name used by Shoshone groups”
19th Century
English
Shoshone
“An English rendering of the name used for the people and language”
Modern English
English
Shoshone
“A Native American people of the western United States, or their language”
Modern English
English
Shoshoni
“A variant spelling used in some historical and linguistic sources”