Eskimo

noun

1. pl. Eskimos -·mos′ or Eskimo -·mo′ a member of a group of indigenous North American peoples thinly scattered in areas extending from Greenland across N Canada and Alaska through the NE tip of Asia
2. any of the languages of the Eskimos, belonging to the Eskimo-Aleut language family and including a continuum of dialects called Inupiaq in Alaska, Inuktitut in Canada, and Kalaallisut in Greenland, as well as the Yupik languages

Etymology: earlier Esquimaw(es), prob. via Fr < Sp esquimao(s) (used by 16th-c. Basque fishermen in Labrador) < Montagnais ayashkimew, lit., ? snowshoe net makers

adjective