DCHP-1 Online

mooneas Various spellings [< Algonk.: Cree] Derog., especially in Indian parlance

• 1 n. a newcomer; tenderfoot; greenhorn.

  • c1880  (1966)  There was always an extra cake put on for appearance, and it was a sure sign of a "tenderfoot" or a "moonias" to eat that extra cake.
  • 1908  If a monias (a greenhorn) took the bow pole . . . the orders of our steersman, Cyr, were amusing to listen to.
  • 1959  He was constantly involved in some transportation difficulty, and earned for himself among the half-breeds and Indians such unflattering appellations as "moonias" and "kipooch," epithets reserved for blundering tenderfeet.
  • 1966  . . . I was the assistant surveyor and the moneas (tenderfoot) of the outfit.

• 2 n. a European; a white man.

  See also: Moniyas  

  • 1885  . . . we came upon the main trail and saw the track of boots, which the Indians at once said were "Moneasses," or men of the east, unaccustomed to mountain travelling.
  • 1913  I ordered him to get out immediately, which he did promptly, amid the jeers of the people before whom he had been bragging how he could "play over a Moonyass" a minute before.
  • 1956  Mooneas is the Cree word for White Man. He obtained the sobriquet due, not to his blood, but to his grey eyes.
  • 1963  A moonias--a white man--sees but a great thundercloud black and menacing. . . .