Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of a group of Native American peoples inhabiting an area of the Coast Ranges of northern California.
  • noun Any of the seven languages of the Pomo.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun An indigenous population native to Northern California.
  • proper noun The family of languages of this people.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a member of an Indian people of northern California living along the Russian River valley and adjacent Pacific coast
  • noun the Kulanapan language spoken by the Pomo

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Used in English since 1877, Pomo derives from the Pomo language words IPA: /pʰoːmoː/ and IPA: /pʰoʔmaʔ/, meaning "those who live at red earth hole". It was once the name of a village in Southern Potter Valley, possibly referring to the red mineral magnesite used for beads, or to the reddish earth and clay such as hematite mined in the area. At the same time in the Northern Pomo dialect, -pomo or -poma was used as a suffix after the names of places for subgroups of people of that place.

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