Illinois
(ɪlɪˈnɔɪ)
Also 8 Il(l)inese. Pl. Illinois.
[Amer. Indian.]
1. pl. The members of a confederation of Algonquian Indian tribes formerly inhabiting an area in and around the state of Illinois.
| [1670 Relations des Jésuites (1858) 86 Les Ilinois peuples tirans au Sud, ont cinq grands Bourgs.] 1703 tr. Lahontan's New Voy. N.-Amer. I. 231 Some Ilinese at Chegakou. 1722 D. Coxe Descr. Carolana 16 The River of the Alinouecks, corruptly by the French call'd Illinois. 1766 R. Rogers Ponteach ii. ii, This same Chekitan a Captive led The fair Donanta from the Illinois. 1834 J. M. Peck Gazetteer Illinois 102 The Illinois, a numerous nation of Indians who were destitute of the cruelty of savages. 1907 F. W. Hodge Handbk. Amer. Indians I. 598/2 Seemingly belonging to the Illinois. 1949 Chicago Tribune 20 Feb. (Grafic Mag.) 14/4 These Indians called themselves Illini (the native word for men) but the French called them Illinois. |
2. The language of this people.
| 1703 tr. Lahontan's New Voy. N. Amer. I. xvi. 130 About two a clock in the Morning two Men approach'd to our little Camp, and call'd in Illinese, that they wanted an Interview. 1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. iv. 72 The languages..of the Great Lakes region (..Illinois, Miami, and so on). |
3. attrib. or quasi-adj. Of or pertaining to the Illinois Indians or to the state of Illinois.
| 1703 tr. Lahontan's New Voy. N. Amer. I. 231 Upon the Ilinese Lake, and the adjacent Country. 1764 J. Grant Let. Dec. in Amer. Hist. Rev. (1915) XX. 827, I find Your Lordships' have included the Illinois Indians in the Northern District. 1785 T. Jefferson Notes Virginia (1787) 37 Paccan, or Illinois nut..grows on the Illinois. 1785 H. Marshall Arbustrum Amer. 69 Juglans pecan. The Pecan or Illinois Hickery. This tree is said to grow plenty in the neighborhood of the Illinois river. 1818 M. Birkbeck Lett. from Illinois 104, I am an Illinois farmer. 1857 [see combine n. c]. 1861 Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) 1 Aug. 2/3 The consternation in Washington, upon the arrival there of the Illinois Xerxes [sc. Abraham Lincoln], was indescribable. 1865 Trans. Illinois Agric. Soc. V. 865 The Chick-pea has again been heralded as a valuable acquisition upon the prairies under the name of Illinois coffee. 1948 Chicago Tribune 26 June i. 7/8 Starved Rock obtained its name from a legend which says that a band of Illinois Indians perished there in 1769. |