What does wickyup mean?
Wickyup is a chiefly North American noun denoting a simple shelter or hut, particularly the pole-and-brush dwellings associated with Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin and Plateau regions of western North America. The word appears frequently in accounts of frontier life, travel writing, and descriptions of traditional dwellings. It carries a historical and regional character: it evokes the material culture and landscape of the American West without necessarily referring to a formally named architectural type. Unlike terms for more standardized shelter forms, wickyup broadly suggests a lightweight structure made from readily available materials such as bent poles, branches, brush, hides, or leaves. The word is also written wickiup and wikiup. In contemporary writing, it is most appropriate when referring to Indigenous shelters in a respectful historical or cultural context.
nounA simple shelter or hut, traditionally made by Indigenous peoples of western North America from bent poles, brush, or similar materials.
- A simple hut or shelter, traditionally constructed from poles and brush by Indigenous peoples of western North America.
"The guide explained how the wickyup's framework of poles and brush provided protection from the desert night."
"We built a small wickyup near the spring, covering its frame with branches and leaves."
"The photograph from 1904 shows a family beside a wickyup on the open plain."
The regular plural adds -s.
"Several wickyups stood near the riverbank."
A modest shelter named with a Shoshoni word for “house” carries the history of the American West within its spelling.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of wickyup
Wickyup entered American English from Shoshoni, in which wickiup means “house” or “dwelling.” It became established in nineteenth-century English as a term for a simple shelter used by Indigenous peoples of the western United States. The spellings wickiup and wikiup developed as established variants of the same borrowed word.
How wickyup is actually used
The word is chiefly North American and is often encountered in historical, literary, or cultural contexts describing Indigenous life. Its spelling variants are interchangeable, and modern uses generally refer to traditional shelters rather than expressing the dated or derogatory language found in some older sources.
Easily confused with wickyup
Wickiup is an alternate spelling of wickyup and has the same meaning.
Wikiup is another established spelling of the same word for a simple shelter or hut.