DCHP-3

Chinook

[< Salishan (Chehalis) chənukw]
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1n. — Hist.

(one of) a relatively small group of Indians who lived north of the Columbia River on the Pacific Coast.

Quotations

1824
The Chinooks never take the trouble of hunting and rarely employ their Slaves in that way, they are however keen traders and through their hands nearly the whole of our Furs pass.
1958
Four-fifths of the Chinook were wiped out by a fever epidemic in 1829.
2n.

a relatively simple trade language used by the Indians of the Pacific Coast in their dealings with whites and Indians of other tribes, based on the language of the Chinook Indians; words from Nootka, Salish, French, English, and other languages were adapted to the jargon.

Quotations

1833
Have begun making a vocabulary of the Chenooke gibberish, by which we communicate with the indians . . . it is a vile compound of English, French, American & the Chenooke dialect.
1859
From the prospectus we learn that it will be printed in English and not in Chinook, the diplomatic language of the northern courts.
1963
[George] used Chinook, the language [of] conversation between whites and Indians in fur-trading days. . . .
3n.

a warm, usually dry, west or southwest wind, commonest during winter and spring, that moderates the weather in the region east of the Rockies, including much of the western prairies on occasion, but regularly in the foothills from the Peace River to Colorado. Also spelled chinook.

Quotations

1879
On the evening of the fourth, however, a chinook sprang up and sent the cold snap to seek its old haunts.
1963
I'm thankful for breezy Chinooks that make our city the envy of all Canadian cities. . . .
1966
The weather still hasn't broken--no chinook has made its appearance [in S. Alberta]. . . .
4n.

a large salmon, Onchorhynchus tshawytscha, of the Pacific Coast, much valued as a game fish. Also spelled chinook.

Quotations

1933
Salmon is, of course, principally canned though there is a limited quantity salted each year and there is also a considerable business done in mild curing, principally of Kings or Chinooks.
1964
Spring salmon . . . have become extinct through the modern terminology of science and will from now on be known . . . as Chinooks.