Thursday, April 4, 2019

More from Algonquian

More from Algonquian

Last week’s post looks into some Algonquian words that made their way into English. Here are a few more.

An Algonquian word meaning powder, dust, or ashes came to English in 1896 meaning worthless. That word is punk.

Though the West Indian island Jamaica got its name from the Taino-speaking folks who lived there, the Jamaica of Jamaica Plains in New York is Algonquian. It comes from the Delaware branch of Algonquian & meant beaver pond.

In 1937, United States Rubber Products Inc. trademarked the name Naugahyde, a word that patched together the Old English word hide with Naugatuk, the name of the Connecticut town in which the product was made. Naugatuk is an Algonquian word which meant one tree.

An Algonquian village near a Connecticut river was situated in a boggy place, so the natives called it Potunck (which meant something like to sink in). In 1846, the word Podunk was born — the name of a mythical & “typical” town featured in a recurring column in the Buffalo Daily National Pilot newspaper. Years later, the meaning oozed toward meaning an insignificant, isolated place.

Since 1763, English speakers have used the word caucus — a private meeting of leaders or voters. Though the research isn’t definitive, caucus’s source is most likely an Algonquian word meaning counselor, elder, or advisor.

Some Algonquian speakers were impressed by the size of the canoes of another native group (the Chiwere), & called them people of the big canoes. Their name for this group turned into the word Missouri.

Though etymologists are still arguing about the origin of the word tuxedo, one of the likely sources is Algonquian. They called a Delaware town P’tuck-sepo, after its crooked river. That town name got applied to Tuxedo Park, New York, which became a “rural resort for wealthy New Yorkers,” & the attire worn by the visiting gentlemen likely picked up the name, tuxedo.

Modern English speakers have a richer language thanks to hundreds of contributing languages, including all the various branches of Algonquian. Though English has benefitted from them, not all those languages have survived. It seems to me we should be appreciating them all the more.





My thanks go out to this week’s sources, Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary Etymonline & Wordnik.

4 comments:

  1. Whoda thunk that Naugahyde had old Algonquian roots? Or that we got tuxedos from Native Americans. I love it that at least some of our language comes from indigenous American people!

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    1. And what could be more Amercian than Naugahyde tuxedos? Thanks for coming by.

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