tomahawk

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

tomahawk

Wikipedia

Etymology

From an Eastern Algonquian word, most likely Powhatan tumahák; compare also Malecite-Passamaquoddy tomhikon (“ax”), Abenaki temahigan, demahigan (“ax”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑ.mə.hɔk/, IPA^(key): /ˈtɑ.mə.hɑk/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɒm.ə.hɔːk/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Noun

tomahawk (plural tomahawks)

1. An ax used by Native American warriors.
   • 1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia (published in Richmond in 1957), page 13:

     yeerely bring into our store house, at the beginning of their haruest two bushels of corne a man for which they should receiue so many Iron Tomahawkes or small hatchets.

2. (basketball) A dunk performed with one's arm behind one's head.
3. (geometry) A geometric construction consisting of a semicircle and two line segments that serves as a tool for trisecting an angle; so called from its resemblance to the American Indian axe.
4. (field hockey) A field hockey shot style that involves a player turning their hockey stick upside-down and swinging it so that its inside edge will come into contact with the ball.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

tomahawk (third-person singular simple present tomahawks, present participle tomahawking, simple past and past participle tomahawked)

1. To strike or cut up with a tomahawk.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 296:

     In a moment the savage wretches dashed at him, and "tomahawked" the unfortunate man, who fell backwards into his cabin.

   • 1906, FE Smith, maiden speech to House of Commons, 12 Mar 1906:

     Not satisfied with tomahawking our colleagues in the country, they ask the scanty remnant in the House to join in the scalp dance.

2. (historical) To girdle or incise the trees around (an area of land) so as to claim ownership of it.
   • 1909, Samuel Gordon Smyth, A Genealogy of the Duke-Shepherd-Van Metre Family: From Civil, Military, Church and Family Records and Documents, page 67:

     He was the owner of 1,300 acres of land bought from the government and located where the city of Lexington, Ky., now stands. After his marriage he tomahawked an area of 600 acres near Carmichaelstown, […]

   • 1915, Chronicles of the Cochrans: Being a Series of Historical Events and Narratives, in which Members of this Family Have Played a Prominent Part, page 55:

     Meantime, Silas Zane passed on and came to the forks, and admiring the locality, he tomahawked his right to it, securing one thousand acres.

   • 1993, H. Austin Cooper, Two Centuries of Brothersvalley Church of the Brethren, 1762-1962: An Account of the Old Colonial Church, the Stony Creek German Baptist Church and the Area of Bruedersthal in which the Brethren Settled in the Summer of 1762, and Organized by Elder George Adam Martin, Presiding Elder:

     The Germans thought that by just tomahawking a claim and living on it, it was an "improvement" and that was sufficient for claim; but not so with the Land Office. The land had to be legally registered and taxes paid on it […]

   • 2011, Don Corbly, Pastor John Corbly and his neighbors in Greene Township, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 23:

     They tomahawked the land they settled on and were joined by other settlers. Each settler picked out the piece of land that he or, in some instances, she desired which resulted in oddly shaped plats when they were later surveyed.

3. (basketball) To perform a tomahawk dunk.
   • 2007, Bob Dyer, The Top 20 Moments in Cleveland Sports, page 237:

     When the league held its first slam-dunk contest in 1984 in Denver, Nance, then a Phoenix Sun, soared into the rafters with a basketball in each hand and tomahawked each one through the net before floating back to earth […]

Derived terms

• tomahawker
• tomahawking

Translations

References

French

Etymology

From an Eastern Algonquian language; see English entry for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔ.ma.ok/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tomahawk m (plural tomahawks)

1. tomahawk

Further reading

• “tomahawk”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

tomahawk

Wikipedia ^pl

Etymology

Borrowed from English tomahawk, from Powhatan tumahák.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔˈma.xɔk/
• Rhymes: -axɔk
• Syllabification: to‧ma‧hawk

Noun

tomahawk m inan

1. tomahawk (American Indian axe)

Declension

Further reading

• tomahawk in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Noun

tomahawk m (plural tomahawks)

1. tomahawk (type of American Indian axe)

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English tomahawk.

Noun

tomahawk n (plural tomahawkuri)

1. tomahawk

Declension

Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

tomahawk

Wikipedia ^sv

Etymology

Borrowed from English tomahawk.

Noun

tomahawk c

1. a tomahawk

   taktisk tomahawk

   tactical tomahawk

Declension

References

• tomahawk in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tomahawk in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• tomahawk in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)