Athabascan n 1: a group of Amerindian languages (the name coined by an American anthropologist, Edward Sapir) [syn: {Athapaskan}, {Athapascan}, {Athabaskan}, {Athabascan}, {Athapaskan language}] 2: a member of any of the North American Indian groups speaking an Athapaskan language and living in the subarctic regions of western Canada and central Alaska [syn: {Athapaskan}, {Athapascan}, {Athabaskan}, {Athabascan}]