DCHP-1 Online

Siwash ((n.)) Siwash or Siwashes. [< Chinook Jargon < F sauvage savage, the term used by voyageurs for Indians] Pacific Coast and Northwest

• 1 n. a native Indian.

  See also: Siwash Indian  

  • In present-day use, this term has deteriorated to such a degree that it might well be labelled as derogatory slang. See def. 2.

  • 1851  Late in the evening Mr. John Simpson with 2 returning Siwashes reached this [post] from Langley.
  • 1865  A Siwash walking blindfold from Yale to the Meadows by the usual route would be able to tell more correctly the condition of the country than your friends will learn from the columns of your contemporary.
  • 1901  (1958)  . . . Father Rohr . . . addressed the kneeling siwashes, the priest speaking in the Chinook, and the interpreter rendering his speech in the native tongue.
  • 1938  We call the natives Siwashes, as do all the white people we have met here, but this is only slang.
  • 1958  Instead he wanted to be an Indian in a land where the natives were generally scorned by the white man and the word "Siwash" was a term of opprobrium.
  • 1963  . . . most ranchers in the interior loosely refer to all Indians as Siwashes.

• 2a n. Slang, Derog. of whites: See 1913 quote.

  • 1882  Does this great chieftain think new settlers are a community of Siwashes or cringing dependants that his aggressive actions are to be unrestrained by any power or his word doubted in the slightest particular.
  • 1913  Siwash, a mean, contemptible person; a term of address that is meant to give offence, as "You Siwash."
  • 1920  "You ornery worthless . . . Siwash! Change your face or you'll give a dog distemper!"
  • 1964  "Shall we go up and stake?" one of them asked the other. "I wouldn't go across the river on that old Siwash's word," was the reply.

• 2b n. (familiar use) fellow; old-timer.

  • 1921  . . . Tuck Roberts entered. Kirk glanced round, then leaped to his feet. "Tuck, you old siwash!" Kirk cried and threw his arms about him.

• 3 n. any native Indian language, especially the Chinook Jargon.

  See also: Chinook Jargon  Siwash tongue  

  • 1936  "That's what Saghelia means in Siwash--the purty land .. . paradise."

• 4 n.

  See also: Siwash duck