Skraeling
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A member of a race of native people encountered by early Norse settlers to Greenland, often equated with Inuit or American Indians. historical
"1974, H. F. McGee, Native Peoples of Atlantic Canada, Carleton University Press, page 2, This time all the staves were being swung anti-sunwise, and the Skraelings were all yelling aloud, so they took red shields and held them out against them."
- 1 A little-known language once spoken by the now extinct Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland (also called Beothuk or Red Indian).
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"1974, H. F. McGee, Native Peoples of Atlantic Canada, Carleton University Press, page 2, This time all the staves were being swung anti-sunwise, and the Skraelings were all yelling aloud, so they took red shields and held them out against them."
Etymology
After Old Norse skrælingi (of disputed etymology), the Norse name for the native inhabitants of Greenland and continental North America (Eastern Canada).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.