Seneca, n. and a.
(ˈsɛnɪkə)
Also † Senacar, Senecke, Sineque, etc.
[ad. N. Amer. Du. Sennecas, Sennecaas, collect. name for the Upper Iroquois tribes, perh. orig. a Mahican name for the Oneida or their village.]
A. n. (A member of) one of the five (later, six) tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy of North American Indians; their language. B. adj. Of or pertaining to this tribe.
Formerly used also to designate the four Upper Iroquois tribes, and the Iroquois collectively.
| [c 1616 in Documents Colonial Hist. N.Y. (1856) I. facing p. 11 Sennecas.] 1664 J. Winthrop Let. 6 Feb. in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1863) 4th Ser. VI. 531, 3000 of the Seneckes, a people in league with the Mohawkes beyond them, are gathered together. 1684 New-Hampshire Hist. Soc. Coll. (1827) II. 199 The sd Mohauck, Senacar, or other Indians, [shall] be paid out of such monies as shall be raised in the sd Province. 1684 [see Onondaga]. 1709 S. Sewall Jrnl. 12 Aug. in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1879) 5th Ser. VI. 262, 300 Eastern Indians..were gon to the 5 Nations to pray leave to dwell with them; and..others refusing them, they were gon to the Senecas. 1724 H. Jones Pres. State Va. i. i. 5 The Senecaa Indians in their War Dress may appear as terrible as any of the Sons of Anak. 1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 393 A party of the Senekah Indians came to war against the Katahba. 1823 [see Cayuga]. 1874 [see Onondaga]. 1895 [see six a. 1 d]. 1900 Congress. Record (U.S.) 26 Jan. 1232/2 Among the Seneca Indians a singularly beautiful belief prevailed. 1910 Kipling Rewards & Fairies 187 Senecas aren't Hurons, they're Iroquois, of course, and Toby told him so. 1933 L. Bloomfield Language iv. 72 The languages of the Iroquois type..Seneca. 1969 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 25 May 61/1 The Iroquois leader Sagoyewatha, known as Red Jacket, was one of the Seneca tribe who fought alongside the British during the American War of Independence. 1976 T. A. Sebeok Native Lang. Americas I. 537 Wright at one time devised a unique set of letters to be used in printing Seneca, but they were never adopted. |
C. attrib. in
Seneca grass, a name for Northern holy-grass (
Hierochloa borealis);
Seneca oil, a name for crude petroleum (see
quot. a 1864): now only
Hist.| 1814 J. Bigelow Florula Bostoniensis 245 *Seneca grass... An erect, early grass, with a small panicle of short flowers. 1846–50 A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 608 Seneca grass. |
| 1795 J. Scott U.S. Gazetteer s.v. Allegany, In this county is Oil creek: It flows from a spring much celebrated for a bitumen resembling Barbadoes tar, and is known by the name of *Seneca Oil. 1826 Hildreth in Amer. Jrnl. Sci. X. 5 The other [well] discharges..vast quantities of petroleum, or, as it is vulgarly called ‘Seneka oil’. 1833 ― Ibid. XXIV. 64 This oil..acquired its name of Seneca oil,..from having been first found in the vicinity of Seneca Lake, N. York. a 1864 Gesner Coal, Petrol., etc. (1865) 16 Under the name of ‘Seneca Oil’ which it derived from an Indian tribe, petroleum was formerly collected in Chatauque County, N.Y., and in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and sold for medicinal purposes. 1910 Kipling Rewards & Fairies 161 He took orders for that famous Seneca Oil which he had the secret of from Red Jacket's Indians. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. X. 619/1 In North America crude oil was undoubtedly used by the Indians, and Seneca oil skimmed from the surface of water near Lake Seneca..utilized for rheumatism, coughs, burns, sprains etc. |