Tonto

See also: tonto

English

Etymology

From Spanish tonto (“fool, idiot”), the Spanish name for the tribe, a calque of Western Apache kounʼnde (“wild rough people”). The fictional character (described as Comanche or Potawatomi) either from Potawatomi or named after Tonto Basin, Arizona.

Proper noun

Tonto

1. (fiction) The Native American sidekick of the Lone Ranger.
2. A member of the Tonto Apaches.

Translations

Tonto Apache

• Apache: Dilzhę́’é, Dilzhe'e, Dilzhe’eh Apache

  Chiricahua: Bíniʼ Ádinii

• Navajo: Dilzhíʼí dineʼé

Noun

Tonto (plural Tontos)

1. A sidekick.
   • 2004, Lee Godden, ZenWise Selling: Mindful Methods to Improve Your Sales, page 141:

     Salespeople may see themselves as Lone Rangers, not in need of any help, save for the occasional advice from a Tonto (or technical sales specialist).

   • 2006, Douglas Snauffer, Crime television, page 130:

     Hardcastle realized he couldn't go it alone and would need a “Tonto.” He found his trusty sidekick in “Skid” Mark McCormack

   • 2010, Stephen Arterburn with Jack Felton, More Jesus, Less Religion: Moving from Rules to Relationship, page 133:

     So do you have a Tonto in your life? If not, find one and make that person your trusted companion.

2. A Native American who accepts a subservient position to a white person.
   • 1982, Iron Eyes Cody with Collin Perry, Iron Eyes, my life as a Hollywood Indian:

     They called Indians like him — that is, any Indian who tried to make it by working within the system — a "Tonto."

   • 1999, Ellenor Ranghild Merriken, Looking for country: a Norwegian immigrant's Alberta memoir, page 21:

     Once more, Beyond the Survey takes up the topic, introducing a character Mowees (obviously an "Indianificarion" of the common Metis name Moise) who unfortunately never rises above the level of a Tonto figure.

   • 2002, Jim Sleeper, Liberal racism, page 130:

     Law Schools, a critical race theorist likened Kennedy to a Tonto figure, the fictional Indian whose loyalty to the Lone Ranger set him apart from, if not against, his tribe.

   • 2003, Benjamin DeMott with Arthur Asa Berger, Supergrow: essays and reports on imagination in America, page 11:

     An example: The Black Panther Chairman abuses the black Supreme Court Justice (the latter having just denied a Cleaver plea) as an "Uncle Tom, a bootlicker, a nigger pig, a Tonto, and a punk."

   • 2007, Lisa Alther, Kinfolks: falling off the family tree, page 20:

     But clearly she's a Two Hearts, not a Tonto.

   • 2007, Jabari Asim, The N word: who can say it, who shouldn't, and why, page 185:

     In the best circumstances, he was devastatingly witty and slyly subversive; in the worst, he was merely a Tonto with an Afro.

Further reading

• Tonto (Lone Ranger character) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Tonto Apache on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Toton