Nipissingadj.n.
/ˈnɪpɪsɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈnɪpɪsɪŋ/ A. adj. (attributive).
1. Of, relating to, or designating a North American Indian people living around Lake Nipissing in south-eastern Ontario at the time of first European contact.
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1742 J. La France New Map Part of N. Amer. in A. Ray Indians in Fur Trade 17 (on map) Nepisin Indians.
1877 C. R. Tuttle Hist. Dominion Canada 150/1 At Lake Nipegon he found the remnant of the Nipissing tribe.
1896 J. Maclean Canad. Savage Folk 484 Of lesser works in the native languages worthy of notice are the ‘Autobiography of Kaondinoketc’, ‘A Nipissing Chief’, ‘The Story of the Young Cottager’, in Ojibway.
1917 L. P. Kellogg Early Narratives of Northwest 15 The Nipissing Indians were a tribe of Algonquin stock dwelling north of the lake (in the present province of Ontario) to which they gave their name.
1940 G. T. Hunt Wars of Iroquois 107 It is entirely likely that the Iroquois did treat the Nipissings well, for that would have been quite in line with their policy if thereby they got Nipissing fur, and we know that in the 1680's the Iroquois were travelling to the Nipissing homeland to collect it.
1995 Canad. Historical Rev. Mar. 104 Philip Goulais of the Nipissing First Nation discusses the very successful development of a modern value-added fur industry in his community.
2. Of, relating to, or designating the language spoken by the Nipissings.
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the mind > language > languages of the world > Amerindian > [adjective] > Algonquian languages
Shawnee1674
Cree1744
Potawatomi1789
Nipissing1793
Miami1804
Algic1827
Beothuk1842
Blackfoot1845
Yurok1851
Passamaquoddy1856
Plains Cree1860
Maliseet1863
Ojibwa1937
1793 J. Macdonell Diary in C. M. Gates 5 Fur Traders (1965) 80 Mattawin means a fork in the Algonquin or Nipising Tongue.
1978 Handbk. N. Amer. Indians XV. 791/1 The seventeenth-century Algonquin or Nipissing form for ‘Nipissing person’ had substitution of -irini ‘person’ for the locative ending -ink.
B. n.
1. A member of the Nipissing people.
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1722 D. Coxe Descr. Carolana 45 By the River of the Nepiserini, there is a Communication with all the French of Canada.]
1745 G. Clinton Let. 25 July in E. B. O'Callaghan Documents Colonial Hist. N.-Y. (1855) VI. 281 Their Indians fit to carry Arms are the Cacknawages about 230,..Altenkins 30, Nepesinks 40, [etc.].
1761 tr. P. de Charlevoix Jrnl. Voy. N.-Amer. I. 285 From the island of Montreal, always taking a north course, you will find a few villages of the Nipissings, the Temiscamings,..and Outaways.
1766 Hist. Acct. Exped. against Ohio Indians 69 Nipissins, Algonquins, living towards the heads of the Ottawa river.
1810 A. Henry Jrnl. 1 June (1992) II. 447 A Nepisang was also in company with them, carrying his canoe to the Saskatchewoine.
1872 Catholic World Oct. 107/1 They even extended their visits to the neighboring Nipissings, who had been terribly afflicted with the prevailing maladies.
1940 W. V. Kinietz Indians of W. Great Lakes 1615–1760 317 The affiliations of the Nipissings, Amikua, and Missisauga to the Chippewa are only very vaguely known.
1998 Canad. Encycl. (Electronic ed.) at Native peoples, Eastern woodlands The Nipissing traded fish for Huron corn.
2. The Algonquian language of the Nipissings.
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1892 A. F. Chamberlain Lang. of Mississaga Indians 12 The consonantal sounds of the Mississaga seem to agree better with those of Cuoq's Nipissing than with those of Baraga's Otcípwē.
1896 N.Y. Sun 30 July Malashagany, a name of the sheepshead of Lake Huron, the ‘bass’ of the English of Canada, and the ‘gros bossu’ (from its rounded back) of the French of the same country. The name is, through French Canadian, ‘malachegane’, from Nipissing ‘manashigan’, ‘the ill-formed bass’.
1996 Handbk. N. Amer. Indians XVII. 722/2 A dictionary and grammar from Oka, originally the Nipissing dialect.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1742