appaloosa
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌæ.pəˈlu.sə/
Etymology 1
a + Palouse + -a. From the phrase "a Palouse horse", referring to the Palouse River near which they were first encountered by non-Native Americans.[1] The river is named for the Palouse region; whether the region's name is (an anglicisation of) a francisation of the Sahaptin name of the Palus people or the people's name derives from a French designation of the region as pelouse is unclear.
Alternative forms
Noun
appaloosa (countable and uncountable, plural appaloosas)
Translations
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Etymology 2
Ellipsis of Appaloosa cat, Apaloosa catfish. Shortening of "Appaloosa cat" (itself a shortening of "Apaloosa catfish"), after the Appaloosa (Opelousa) tribe which resided in Louisiana. The tribe's name is Choctaw, the second element of it being losa (“black”); the first element is variously supposed to be a term for "head" or "skull",[2] "leggings", "moccasins",[3] or "body".[4]
Alternative forms
Noun
appaloosa (plural appaloosas)
- (Southern US) A catfish.
- 2005, David Francis, The Great Inland Sea, page 141:
- A big fish wends its way towards the shape the light makes, stops and sucks at air. Mottled brown and black, with a pink, appaloosa mouth.
- 2008, Harry Noble, Me and Burnice: A Simpler Time, page 167:
- On a two-day camp out at Red Bluff on the Angelina River in East Texas, we had out twelve trotlines, fishing for mud, appaloosa, blue and channel catfish.
See also
References
- 2002, Dave Conklin, Montana History Weekends: 52 Adventures in History, page 63: "White settlers first described the colorful native mounts as "a Palouse horse," which was soon slurred to "Appalousey."
- 1911, John Reed Swanton, Indian tribes of the lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent coast, page 364: It is said the word appalousa, in the Indian language, means ' black head,' or 'black skull.'
- 1905, Bulletin - United States Geological Survey, issue 257, page 232: Opelousas; town in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, named from a tribe of Indians, the name signifying " black head," or " black moccasins."
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “appaloosa”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.