Also 7 tamahauk(e, -hawk, tomahauke, 8 tommahauk, (tomahaw, tomhog), 8–9 tomohawk, (9 tommyhawk). [a. Renâpe (N. Amer. Indian of Virginia) tämähāk (given by Capt. J. Smith as tomahack), apocopated form of tämähākan, ‘what is used for cutting, cutting utensil,’ from tämähāken ‘he uses for cutting,’ from tämäham ‘he cuts’ (W. R. Gerard, in American Anthropologist, X. 1908, p. 277). Cognate with Pamptico (Carolinian) tommahick, and with the full forms, Mohegan tummahegan, Delaware tamoihecan, Abenaki tamahigan, Micmac tŭmeegŭn (tămī·găn), Passamaqoddy tumhigen.]
1. The ax of the North American Indians, used as a weapon of war and the chase, and also as a tool and agricultural implement; in English use the word is usually applied to it as the war-ax.
It consists of a wooden shaft about 21/2 feet long, with a head originally formed of a long hard stone sharpened at one end, or of a piece of copper, or of the horn of a deer, but after the advent of white traders usually of iron (trade tomahawk). Sometimes the shaft was hollow, and a bowl was fashioned at the back of the head (pipe-tomahawk).
[1612. Capt. Smith, Map Virginia (Arb.), 44. Tomahacks. Axes. Tockahacks. Pickaxes.]
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., II. i. 58. [They] beate them downe with their right hand Tamahaukes, and left hand Iavelins.
[1701. C. Wolley, Jrnl. New York (1860), 36. They dig their ground with a Flint, called in their Language tom-a-hen-kan.]
1705. Beverley, Virginia, I. iii. (1722), 39. Knocking the English unawares on the Head, some with their Hatchets, which they call Tommahauks, others with the Hows and Axes of the English themselves.
1715. Phil. Trans., XXIX. 308. Targets, Tomahaws, poisoned Daggers.
1716. B. Church, Hist. Philip’s War (1865), I. 82. A great surly look’d fellow took up his Tomhog, or wooden Cutlash, to kill Mr. Church, but some others prevented him.
1756. Washington, Lett., Writ. 1889, I. 393. The wampum and tomahawks I have purchased.
1780. Edmondson, Heraldry, II. Gloss., Tomahawk, an Indian war-ax.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 41. They walked in single file, each with his tomahawk in one hand, and scalping-knife in the other.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scale Hunt., xxvii. They [Indians] break the shanks [of buffalo] with their tomahawks.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, iv. (1869), 91. The North American stone axe or tomahawk served not merely as an implement, but also as a weapon.
b. erron. applied to a war-club or knobkerry.
1674. Josselyn, Voy. New Eng., 147. Their other weapons are Tamahawks which are staves two foot and a half long with a knob at the end as round as a bowl.
a. 1817. T. Dwight, Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821), I. 118. Another of their principal weapons was the well known Tomahawk, or war-club…. Since the arrival of the English, they have used fire-arms. To these they add a long knife: and a small battle-axe, to which they have transferred the name of Tomahawk.
c. transf. Applied to similar weapons used by savages elsewhere; also Naut. a pole-ax used by sailors; in Australia, the usual word for hatchet.
1670. Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1694), 23. An Indian Club … called by the Caribbe-Indians at Surinam a Tomahauke.
1681. Grew, Musæum, IV. ii. 367. A Tamahauke, or Brazilian Fighting-Club.
1802. J. Jones, in Naval Chron., VII. 348. I saw him chop at him with a … tomahawk.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxxv. In a moment, pikes, tomahawks, cutlasses, and pistols were seized,… and our men poured into the eighty-gun ship, and in two minutes the decks were cleared, and all the Dons pitched below.
1866. Livingstone, Last Jrnls. (1873), I. i. 20. For they are accustomed to clearing spaces for gardens,… using tomahawks well adapted for the work.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., vi. (ed. 2), 229. A couple of tomahawks will be found useful.
1880. Fison & Howitt, Kamilaroi, 206. The [Australian] aborigines have obtained iron tomahawks.
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., s.v., In Australia the word hatchet has practically disappeared, and the word Tomahawk to describe it is in every day use. It is also applied to the stone hatchet of the Aboriginals.
d. Applied locally to various kinds of rural tools and agricultural implements: see quots.
1830. Q. Jrnl. Agric., III. 653. Mortises made by a centre-bit leave an intermediate piece between the apertures. This is taken out by the tomahawk, a tool made for the purpose. One end is a sharp stout pointed knife, which cuts each side of the middle piece left in the mortise, and the other end hooks out the piece not dislodged by the knife.
1881. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Tummy-awk, a dung-fork, carried at the back of the cart, and used to scrape out the manure, on the land, as it is required.
1893. Wiltshire Gloss., Tommy-hawk, a potato hacker.
e. fig. As the imaginary instrument of a savage attack or vindictive onslaught.
1805. Surr, Winter in Lond. (1806), II. 195. His meck nature … would … sink beneath the tomahawk of such a barbarian as the writer of the article in question.
1836. H. Rogers, J. Howe, vii. (1863), 183. Such a temper is rare at any period; but in that age of fierce and savage controversy, of the tomahawk and scalping-knife, it was indeed a phenomenon.
1897. Daily News, 30 Sept., 8/2. In withering denunciation he [Fr. Ignatius] flourished the rhetorical tomahawk over ‘those false teachers who say that the articles of Christian faith are illusions, [etc.].’
2. Phrases. To blow tomahawks, of the wind, to blow with cutting violence. To bury or lay aside the tomahawk: to lay down one’s arms, to cease from hostilities. To dig up, raise, or take up the tomahawk: to take up arms in warfare, to commence hostilities. Cf. HATCHET sb. 2.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 239. I persuaded the Choktah to take up the bloody tomohawk against those perfidious French.
1801. M. J. Rhees, in The Intelligencer (Lancaster, PA), 8 April, 1/1. It is time to heal the wounds inflicted on the bosom of society; to bury the tomahawk and scalping-knife of Faction; and for all Parties to smoke the Calamut of Peace, around the great Council-fire of the Nation.
1806. Pike, Sources Mississ. (1810), 86. Grateful that the two nations had laid aside the tomahawk at my request.
1812. Brackenridge, Views Louisiana (1814), 123. They may come here in peace, or for the purpose of trade, but it will be far hence that they will dare to raise the tomahawk.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., s.v., It was and is the custom of the Indians to go through the ceremony of burying the tomahawk, when they made peace; when they went to war, they dug it up again. Hence the phrases ‘to bury the tomahawk,’ and ‘to dig up the tomahawk,’… sometimes used by political speakers and writers.
1903. Ld. R. Gower, Rec. & Remin., 297. The weather is boisterous; it blows tomahawks and tornadoes.
3. attrib. and Comb., as tomahawk-blow, -critic, -dance, -pipe (quot. 1860), tongue; tomahawk improvement, an ‘improvement’ of a slight character, made to secure a right of pre-emption (Thornton); so tomahawk settler.
1873. R. Brown, Races Man., I. 235. Until the *tomahawk-blow puts an end to him.
1886. J. Payn, Heir of Ages, xxxviii. He was not … a *tomahawk critic; he thought less of being smart himself … than of doing justice to a book.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits. Ability, Wks. (Bohn), II. 39. They have no Indian taste for a *tomahawk-dance.
1842. L. Munsell, in M. Cutler’s Life, etc. (1888), I. 133. They were determined to hold the lands by what is called *‘tomahawk improvements.’
1860. Domenech, Deserts N. Amer., II. 272. The Comanches, in Texas,… have *tomahawk-pipes (small hatchets, the head of which is made hollow like the bowl of a pipe, and the handle perforated in its whole length to serve for a tube).
1907. Q. Rev., July, 161. A recipe for *tomahawk punch.
1788. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 425. Stopped and breakfasted at a little clump of houses on the Indian side. They were *tomahawk settlers.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, x. Of whose observant faculties and *tomahawk tongue Caroline stood in awe.
Hence Tomahawked a., provided or armed with a tomahawk.
1895. K. Grahame, Golden Age (1904), 3. A prairie studded with herds of buffalo, which it was our delight, moccasined and tomahawked, to ride down.
