English
Winona
Winona comes from Dakota winúŋna ‘firstborn daughter’.
- Dakotamodernwinúŋna‘firstborn daughter’
- Englishearliest quotation 2001Winona
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Dakotamodernwinúŋna‘firstborn daughter’
- Englishearliest quotation 2001Winona
Earliest quotation: 2001, Julia Cameron: “I've met the full Clairol spectrum of Winonas, and…”
The story
While not originally used as a personal name by the Dakota, it has been adopted as such by English speakers. John Koontz suggested that the name was a compound of wi- (‘female’) + no (‘first’) + -na (a diminutive suffix) and thus a reflex of Proto-Siouan *rǫ/*nǫ (‘one’). That root is otherwise unattested in the Sioux languages, which use reflexes of *wį(y)ą (‘one’) instead, and a more prosaic analysis identifies the first elements of the name with winyan (‘woman’).
Every English word from Dakota winúŋna
Today it means
name A female given name from Dakota, used mainly in the United States.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Dakota winúŋna / Winona