moccasin

1. A soft leather slipper traditionally worn by certain Native American peoples.
2. Footwear resembling such a slipper.
3. A water moccasin.

[Of Virginia Algonquian origin, akin to Powhatan mäkäsĭn, shoe, and Ojibwa makisin.]

For more information on moccasin, visit Britannica.com.

The arrival of three shiploads of English speakers at a place they called Jamestown on May 14, 1607, marked the beginning of English immigration to North America and the beginning of a period of intensive immigration of American Indian words to the English language. Down the road, the first natives the English encountered were ones they called Powhatans after the name of their chief. They and the English were uneasy neighbors, but after some touchy encounters, the chief's daughter Pocahontas saved Captain John Smith's life and sent the English enough food to keep them from starving.

The Virginia Algonquians also provided important words to describe the creatures and cultures of their land, including in the first years of English presence raccoon (1609), opossum (1610), tomahawk (1611), and persimmon (1612). Among the most notable contributions was a kind of footwear unfamiliar to the English: the moccasin. In his 1612 glossary of Indian words, Captain Smith lists "Mockasins: Shoes."

Ever since, moccasins have been admired by Americans of all ancestries. They have special potency in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 Song of Hiawatha, or at least Hiawatha's moccasins do:

There are perhaps 3,000 Powhatans, or Virginia Algonquians, still living in eastern Virginia nowadays, but their Algonquian language is long since extinct.

Dansk (Danish)
n. - mokkasin

Nederlands (Dutch)
mocassin, indiaanse schoen

Français (French)
n. - mocassin

Deutsch (German)
n. - Mokassin

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (παπούτσι) μοκασίνι, παπούτσι των Ινδιάνων της Αμερικής, δέρμα μοκασέν, (ζωολ.) αγχιστρόδους, νερόφιδο

Italiano (Italian)
mocassino

Português (Portuguese)
n. - mocassim (m)

Русский (Russian)
мокасин

Español (Spanish)
n. - mocasín

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - mockasin, mjukt hjortskinn, mockasinorm

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
鹿皮鞋, 软拖鞋

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 鹿皮鞋, 軟拖鞋

한국어 (Korean)
n. - (인디언의) 노루 가죽신발, 독사의 일종

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - モカシン

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) نوع من أنواع الأحذيه المصنوعه من جلد الغزال‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מוקסין (נעל), נחש מים ארסי, הנמצא באיזור דרום-מזרח ארה"ב‬

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