Dictionary

hair pipe en · NOUN

Etymology

Obscure, possibly from hair + pipe, as a description of one of its uses. Earliest known usage from 1767.

Meanings

1. A type of long, cylindrical bead from North America used in the creation of personal adornments, principally by Native Americans.
   • The Kiowas used brass earrings, from each of which was suspended a hair pipe, which in turn supported a brass chain with a German-silver ornament at the end. 1977, Ronald P. Koch, “5: Native Ornaments”, in Dress Clothing of the Plains Indians, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 41:
   • Wampum, Weoka / “ hair pipes, Waebosndata 1850, Caleb Atwater, “Rudiments of the Grammar of the Sioux Language”, in The Indians of the Northwest: Their Maners, Customs, &c. &c,, Columbus, →OCLC, page 168:
   • About 1850 he, in connection with his brother James, invented a machine for drilling wampum hair-pipe, which is manufactured from conch-shells and clam-shells. 1882, “XXIV: The Bench and Bar of Bergen County”, in W. Woodford Clayton, William Nelson, editors, History of Bergen and Passaic Counties, Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, page 107:
   • Straight dancers wear ribbon shirts with bandoliers made of bone hair pipes and beads, generally from one to four strands wide, […] 2012, “Powwow Dance”, in Elizabeth DeLaney Hoffman, editor, American Indians and Popular Culture, volume 1, Preager, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 299:

Forms