wampum

wampum
    n 1: informal terms for money [syn: {boodle}, {bread},
         {cabbage}, {clams}, {dinero}, {dough}, {gelt}, {kale},
         {lettuce}, {lolly}, {lucre}, {loot}, {moolah}, {pelf},
         {scratch}, {shekels}, {simoleons}, {sugar}, {wampum}]
    2: small cylindrical beads made from polished shells and
       fashioned into strings or belts; used by certain Native
       American peoples as jewelry or currency [syn: {wampum},
       {peag}, {wampumpeag}]
    

Seawan \Sea"wan\, Seawant \Sea"want\, n.
   The name used by the Algonquin Indians for the shell beads
   which passed among the Indians as money.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: Seawan was of two kinds; {wampum}, white, and
         {suckanhock}, black or purple, -- the former having
         half the value of the latter. Many writers, however,
         use the terms seawan and {wampum} indiscriminately.
         --Bartlett.
         [1913 Webster]
    

Wampum \Wam"pum\, n. [North American Indian wampum, wompam, from
   the Mass. w['o]mpi, Del. w[=a]pe, white.]
   Beads made of shells, used by the North American Indians as
   money, and also wrought into belts, etc., as an ornament.
   [1913 Webster]

         Round his waist his belt of wampum.      --Longfellow.
   [1913 Webster]

         Girded with his wampum braid.            --Whittier.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: These beads were of two kinds, one white, and the other
         black or dark purple. The term wampum is properly
         applied only to the white; the dark purple ones are
         called suckanhock. See {Seawan}. "It [wampum] consisted
         of cylindrical pieces of the shells of testaceous
         fishes, a quarter of an inch long, and in diameter less
         than a pipestem, drilled . . . so as to be strung upon
         a thread. The beads of a white color, rated at half the
         value of the black or violet, passed each as the
         equivalent of a farthing in transactions between the
         natives and the planters." --Palfrey.
         [1913 Webster]
    

Wampum, PA (borough, FIPS 80880)
  Location: 40.88647 N, 80.33880 W
  Population (1990): 666 (308 housing units)
  Area: 2.4 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water)
  Zip code(s): 16157
    

Wampum, PA -- U.S. borough in Pennsylvania
   Population (2000):    678
   Housing Units (2000): 310
   Land area (2000):     0.921043 sq. miles (2.385490 sq. km)
   Water area (2000):    0.042833 sq. miles (0.110937 sq. km)
   Total area (2000):    0.963876 sq. miles (2.496427 sq. km)
   FIPS code:            80880
   Located within:       Pennsylvania (PA), FIPS 42
   Location:             40.888657 N, 80.339650 W
   ZIP Codes (1990):     16157
   Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
   Headwords:
    Wampum, PA
    Wampum
    

73 Moby Thesaurus words for "wampum":
      anklet, armlet, bangle, beads, bijou, blunt, boodle, bracelet,
      brass, bread, breastpin, brooch, bucks, cabbage, cash, chain,
      chaplet, charm, chatelaine, chips, circle, coin, coronet, cowrie,
      crown, currency, diadem, dinero, dough, earring, fob, gelt, gem,
      gilt, grease, green, green stuff, greenbacks, jack, jewel, kale,
      legal tender, locket, lucre, mazuma, moolah, mopus, necklace,
      nose ring, oil of palms, ointment, oof, ooftish, pin,
      precious stone, rhinestone, rhino, ring, roanoke, rocks, sewan,
      shekels, simoleons, spondulics, stickpin, stone, sugar,
      the needful, tiara, tin, torque, wristband, wristlet