Ute
/juːt/noun
A member of a Native American people of the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain regions, or the Uto-Aztecan language they speak.
Did you know?Ute belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language family, a deep linguistic web that connects words and peoples across the American Southwest and far beyond.
Etymological Timeline
19th Century
English
Ute
“The ethnonym adopted into English for the Ute people and their language.”
Spanish colonial period
Spanish
Yuta
“Spanish form used for the people living in the region, later reflected in English ethnographic naming.”
Proto-Uto-Aztecan
PUA
*ʔuute
“Reconstructed ancestral ethnonym/root associated with the Ute people.”
Modern English
English
Ute
“A member of the Ute people; also their language.”