redskinn.

Etymology: < red adj. + skin n. In sense 1 after Mississippi Valley French Peau Rouge (c1769 in the passage translated in quot. c1769), itself apparently after Illinois *e·rante·wiroki·ta American Indian, lit. ‘person with red skin’ (compare nitarante·wiroki I am red, lit. ‘I have red skin’ (a1720 as nitaranteȣirouki)) and similar expressions in other American Indian languages of the region.With quot. 1815 at sense 1 compare (in the native language of the speaker) Meskwaki e·sa·winameška·ta American Indian, lit. ‘person who has brown skin’ (high-register, rare), †me·škwinameška·ta in the same sense, lit. ‘person who has red skin’, also wa·peškinameška·ta white person, lit. ‘person who has white skin’. The published speech apparently inspired J. F. Cooper, who popularized the term (compare quot. 1823). For further details compare I. Goddard's discussion in European Review of Native American Studies 19 (2005) 1-20. With more general references to the indigenous peoples of North America as red (compare red adj. 5d) compare similar uses in North American Indian languages of the south east (compare e.g. the phrases cited at red man n. 2); this contrasts with early European descriptions of the appearance of American Indians, which rarely use words meaning ‘red’. See further N. Shoemaker ‘How Indians got to be Red’ in Amer. Hist. Rev. 102 (1997) 625–44. N.E.D. (1904) included the following two quotations, dated 1699, that were subsequently found to be misattributed; the actual text was written in 1900 by an author claiming, for purposes of historical fiction, to be quoting an earlier letter:1900 H. E. Smith Colonial Days 49 Ye firste Meetinge House was solid mayde to withstande ye wicked onsaults of ye Red Skins.1900 H. E. Smith Colonial Days 49 My Honoured Father was as Active as ye Red~skin Men and sinewy.