Re: Word of the day: “Papoose”

On Sat, 31 Aug 2024 18:54:02 +0000, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

>
I came across this word for the first time today, in the second meaning
from
Wikipedia, describing basically something to swaddle a toddler to keep
it still
for a procedure in Emergency Medicine:
>
“Papoose (from the Narragansett papoos, meaning "child")[1] is an
American
English word whose present meaning is "a Native American child"
(regardless of
tribe) or, even more generally, any child, usually used as a term of
endearment, often in the context of the child's mother.[2] In 1643,
Roger
Williams recorded the word in his A Key into the Language of America,
helping
to popularize it.[3]
[...]
Cradle boards and other child carriers used by Native Americans are
known by
various names. In Algonquin history, the term papoose is sometimes used
to
refer to a child carrier.”
>
Given I am 43 and fairly well-read I can assert that it has basically no
currency outside the US. Does it have much currency within the US?

Very familiar in GB from 1960s Westerns as a method by which Indians
could gallop on horseback carrying their infants safely. Not to be
confused with "a caboose".