Wasichu
Wasi'chu is a loanword from the Sioux language (wašíču or waṡicu using different Lakota and Dakota language orthographies) which means a non-Indigenous person, particularly a white person, often with a disparaging meaning.
The word has been widely adopted in English since the 1970s based on the belief that it literally means "fat taker" or greedy person and therefore carries an implied critique of white people and colonialism. Academic linguistic studies of the etymology of wašíču propose other origins for the word.
That the word's underlying meaning is "fat-taker" or "greedy" is today affirmed by many Sioux people themselves, either as the word's origin or as a modern evolution of the meaning. For example, academic and campaigner Nick Estes writes "the highest insult in Lakota is to be greedy, to be wasicu".
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