In·u·it

(ĭn′o͞o-ĭt, -yo͞o-)

1. (used with a pl. verb) The members of various Eskimoan peoples inhabiting the Arctic from northwest Alaska eastward to eastern Greenland, particularly those inhabiting Canada.

a. The family of languages spoken by the Inuit.

b. Any of the languages spoken by the Inuit.

adj.

Of or relating to the Inuit or the languages spoken by the Inuit.

[Inuit, pl. of inuk, human being, Eskimo.]

Usage Note: The preferred term for the native peoples of the Canadian Arctic and Greenland is now Inuit, and the use of Eskimo in referring to these peoples is often considered offensive, especially in Canada. Inuit is inappropriate, however, when used in reference to speakers of Yupik, the Eskimoan language branch of southwest Alaska and the Siberian Arctic. See Usage Note at Eskimo.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Inuit

(ˈɪnjuːɪt) or

Innuit

n, pl -it or -its

1. (Peoples) any of several Native peoples of N America or Greenland, as distinguished from those from Asia or the Aleutian Islands (who are still generally referred to as Eskimos); the preferred term for Eskimo in N America. Compare Yupik

2. (Languages) the language of these peoples; Inuktitut

[from Inuktitut inuit the people, pl of inuk a man]

Usage: See at Eskimo

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

In•u•it

or In•nu•it

(ˈɪn u ɪt, -yu-)

n., pl. -its, (esp. collectively) -it.

a. a member of any of the Eskimo groups inhabiting an area extending from Greenland to W arctic Canada.

b. Eskimo (def. 1).

2. Also called In′uit-Inu′piaq. the speech of all the Eskimo groups from Greenland to NW Alaska.

[1755–65; < Inuit: people, pl. of inuk person]

usage: See Eskimo, Indian.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Inuit - a member of a people inhabiting the Arctic (northern Canada or Greenland or Alaska or eastern Siberia); the Algonquians called them Eskimo (`eaters of raw flesh') but they call themselves the Inuit (`the people')

Eskimo, Esquimau

American Indian, Indian, Red Indian - a member of the race of people living in America when Europeans arrived

Translations

Inuk

інуїтиінуїтськаінуїтська моваінуїтський

Inuit

[ˈɪnjuɪt] (Inuit, Inuits (pl))

A. ADJ → Inuit inv

B. N → Inuit mf, esquimal mf
the Inuits → los Inuit

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Inuit

[ˈɪnjuɪt] n → Inuit mf

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Kadlu was an Inuit,--what you call an Esquimau,--and his tribe, some thirty persons all told, belonged to the Tununirmiut--"the country lying at the back of something." In the maps that desolate coast is written Navy Board Inlet, but the Inuit name is best, because the country lies at the very back of everything in the world.

Kadlu traded the rich, creamy, twisted narwhal horn and musk-ox teeth (these are just as valuable as pearls) to the Southern Inuit, and they, in turn, traded with the whalers and the missionary-posts of Exeter and Cumberland Sounds; and so the chain went on, till a kettle picked up by a ship's cook in the Bhendy Bazaar might end its days over a blubber-lamp somewhere on the cool side of the Arctic Circle.

Kadlu, being a good hunter, was rich in iron harpoons, snow- knives, bird-darts, and all the other things that make life easy up there in the great cold; and he was the head of his tribe, or, as they say, "the man who knows all about it by practice." This did not give him any authority, except now and then he could advise his friends to change their hunting-grounds; but Kotuko used it to domineer a little, in the lazy, fat Inuit fashion, over the other boys, when they came out at night to play ball in the moonlight, or to sing the Child's Song to the Aurora Borealis.

But at fourteen an Inuit feels himself a man, and Kotuko was tired of making snares for wild-fowl and kit-foxes, and most tired of all of helping the women to chew seal- and deer-skins(that supples them as nothing else can) the long day through, while the men were out hunting.

An Inuit does not waste a good dog on his son till the boy knows something of dog-driving; and Kotuko was more than sure that he knew more than everything.

Every Inuit boy prides himself as being a master of the long lash; but it is easy to flick at a mark on the ground, and difficult to lean forward and catch a shirking dog just behind the shoulders when the sleigh is going at full speed.

All an Inuit has to do is to get food and skins for himself and his family.

An Inuit does not think of these chances till he is forced to.

Kadlu, of course, could only distribute the women among the huts of the winter village, for no Inuit dare refuse a meal to a stranger.

Though there is no excitement in it, you can easily believe that the sitting still in the buckle with the thermometer perhaps forty degrees below zero is the hardest work an Inuit knows.

All the Inuit dread the dark that presses on them without a break for six months in each year; and when the lamps are low in the houses the minds of people begin to be shaken and confused.

Kotuko grieved more for the loss of his dog than anything else; for though an Inuit eats enormously he also knows how to starve.

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