papoose

noun — 2 senses

papoose

noun

/pəˈpuːs/

Etymology Borrowed from Narragansett papoos (“a child”).

1

US, Dated, Offensive A Native American baby.

  • […] a half-breed what they nicknamed "Splinters" 'cos of the way he fixed up her papoose which he stole on a raid […]1893, Bram Stoker, The Squaw:
  • They say he has Indian blood in him. They say he has an Indian wife somewhere, and a lot of papooses. Cherokee.1930, Edna Ferber, Cimarron, page 11:
1 more example
  • In the empty Houston streets of four o’clock in the morning a motorcycle kid suddenly roared through, all bespangled and bedecked with glittering buttons, visor, slick black jacket, a Texas poet of the night, girl gripped on his back like a papoose, […]1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 8, in On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, part 2:
2

UK A backpack for carrying a baby, or specifically a cradleboard.

Derived terms
papoose board, papooselike, papoose root, pooseback
Coordinate terms
squaw, buck

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.