Word of the Day
ärähkun
Ärähkun
Powhatan (Algonquian)
Powhatan (reconstructed)/aːɾæhkun/English/ɹəˈkuːn/
“The animal that washes its food taught English colonists a word—and the colonists destroyed the people who spoke it.”
When English colonists arrived in Virginia in 1607, they encountered an animal they'd never seen: a clever, masked creature that appeared to wash its food before eating. The Powhatan people—an Algonquian-speaking confederacy—called it ärähkun or aroughcun, meaning 'one who scratches with its hands.'
5 stops · from Virginia to Global