Word Origin & History
Mohawk"haircut style favored by punk rockers," c.1975, from fancied resemblance to hair style of Mohawk Indians. The style of cut earlier was called a Mohican (1960). The tribe is Iroquoian; the name, first recorded in Eng. as the pl. Mohowawogs (1638), is said to mean "they eat living things" in a southern
New England Algonquian tongue, probably a ref. to cannibalism. Cf. Unami Delaware /muhuwe:yck/ "cannibal monsters." The people's name for themselves is kanye'keha:ka. Variant form Mohoc was the name given 1711 to gangs of aristocratic London ruffians.