palëpay

Unami

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) The 'dollar' sense is a semantic loan from English buck.

Noun

palëpay animacy unspecified (plural palëpaya)

  1. A young male deer at a certain stack of its life; a young buck.
  2. A dollar. (USD)

Usage notes

  • While this phrase is known to have once applied to a young buck at a certain stage in its life, likely related to antler development, it is no longer known exactly which stage it applied to.

References

  • Rementer, Jim with Pearson, Bruce L. (2005) “palëpay”, in Leneaux, Grant, Whritenour, Raymond, editors, The Lenape Talking Dictionary, The Lenape Language Preservation Project
  • Rementer, Jim with Pearson, Bruce L. (2005) “palëpaya”, in Leneaux, Grant, Whritenour, Raymond, editors, The Lenape Talking Dictionary, The Lenape Language Preservation Project
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