tumpline
See also: tump line
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom tump + line, "tump" is an apheresis of mattump, metump, possibly from a Penobscot descendant of Proto-Algonquian *wetempi (“head”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
edittumpline (plural tumplines)
- A strap used to carry objects tied to its ends by placing the broadened or cushioned middle of the strap over the head just above the forehead.
- 1918, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 2, in The Winds of Chance:
- The speaker slipped his arms into his pack-harness and adjusted the tumpline to his forehead preparatory to rising.