beothuk n also beothic, beothick, beothuck, etc [phonetics unavailable]. NID ~ ; 1968 Nfld Qtly Fall, p. 14-15, J Hewson: [peothuk] 'the People.'
   1 Member of a tribe of indians, now extinct, related to the Algonkian people and inhabiting Newfoundland ?-1829 A.D.; NATIVE a: native indian, RED INDIAN.
   [1827] 1915 HOWLEY 183 The history of the original inhabitants of Newfoundland, called by themselves Beothuck, and by Europeans, the Red Indians, can only be gleaned from tradition, and that chiefly among the Micmacs. 1866 WILSON 306 They called themselves 'Boeothicks;' but the settlers called them 'Red Indians;' from the fact of their painting their bodies and their wigwams with red ochre. [1885] 1915 HOWLEY 302 [Gatschet:] The spellings of the tribal name found in the vocabularies are: Beothuk, Beothik, Béhathook, Boeothuck, and Beathook; beothuk means not only Red Indian of Newfoundland, but is also the generic expression for Indian. 1907 MILLAIS 17 The Beothicks had straight black hair, high cheek bones, small black eyes, and a copper-coloured skin. In hunting and fishing modes they also resembled the natives of the neighbouring continent, and their weapons, wigwams, and domestic interests were also similar. Ethnologists are not quite agreed as to the nature of their language, but it is generally accepted that they were probably a small branch of the warlike Algonquins, who at that time were the masters of the northeastern continent of Canada. 1923 MOSDELL 10 Beothic: new sealing steamer ... arrived in Nfld for the first time, Feb 17, 1909. P 54-62 The pronunciation of the steel sealer's name, Beothic [was] Bo-it-ick, as I used to hear it invariably among my neighbours at Elliston when, about 1910, this ship first came to Newfoundland—said neighbours never having heard of the name Beothuck for our aborigines, using therefor the term Red Indian. T 25-64 And up here, about a mile from that, there was a tribe of Beothuk Indians. 1976 TUCK 75 The Beothuks slowly became extinct, because the resources of interior Newfoundland were not sufficient to provide a year-round occupation for people who had traditionally exploited the rich resources of the coast for nine or ten months of every year.
   2 A language of the Algonkian type spoken by the Beothuk indians.
   1850 LATHAM 330 Reasons against either of these views are supplied by a hitherto unpublished Beothuck vocabulary with which I have been kindly furnished by my friend Dr King. [1886] 1915 HOWLEY 309 The points to be gained for the morphology of Beothuk are more scanty still than what can be obtained for reconstructing its phonology, and for the inflection of its verb we are entirely in the dark. 1968 Int Journ of Am Linguistics xxxiv, 85 Our information on Beothuk, the language of the aboriginal inhabitants of Newfoundland, comes from four vocabularies.

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