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#1 Jan-09-2010 03:12:pm
- Pepaxkang
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- Registered: Nov-25-2008
- Posts: 34
Kisky Thomas
Anybody ever heard this word before?
I've been skimming through "Algonkian Words in American English" and thought this one was interesting:
"Ki'skito'mas. A name for the walnut or hickory, formerly common in New Jersey, Long Island, etc.... By folk-etymology the word appears sometimes as Kisky Thomas. The usual form is 'kiskitomas nut.'"
Chamberlain, Alexander F. Algonkian Words in American English: A Study in the Contact of the White Man and the
Indian. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 15, No. 59 (Oct. - Dec., 1902), 246.
Chamberlain gives a very typical etymology of his era which involves tracing the word to an Algonquian language of the Great Lakes (why did they always do that?)
My wild guess is that the word comes from the Delaware word (or word in a related language) "tesquachtaminschi" as recorded in several places by Heckewelder and Zeisberger.
What do you all think?
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#2 Jan-09-2010 06:35:pm
- sschkaak
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- Registered: Sep-17-2007
- Posts: 1417
Re: Kisky Thomas
I think that's a very good guess! And, yet...
Last edited by sschkaak (Jan-09-2010 06:57:pm)
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble. -Samuel Johnson
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#3 Jan-25-2010 05:49:pm
- sschkaak
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- Registered: Sep-17-2007
- Posts: 1417
Re: Kisky Thomas
This Abenaki word looks like a closer match for an original form of this word:
Kiskitomas (Ind.). The peculiar Indian name often given to the nut of
the hickory. Literally, it means a nut that may be cracked with the
teeth, and Rasles gives, for the Abenaki, nesekouskadamen, i. e. " J'en
casse avec les dents. "
Descendants of the Dutch settlers who inhabit New Jersey, near city
of New- York, have corrupted the word into Kinky- Thomas nut.
[source: http://www.archive.org/stream/newdictio … t_djvu.txt ]
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble. -Samuel Johnson
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#4 Jan-25-2010 08:20:pm
- Pepaxkang
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- Registered: Nov-25-2008
- Posts: 34
Re: Kisky Thomas
Thank you Sschkaak.
I wonder whether the word came into the region from a local native word with similar meaning to the Abenaki word. or from a completely different language from outside the region. I don't feel that any cognate in Delaware or Mahican would be as close to "Kiskytomas" as the Abenaki one given. But that's just a wild guess on my part. What do you think?
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#5 Jan-25-2010 09:33:pm
- sschkaak
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- Registered: Sep-17-2007
- Posts: 1417
Re: Kisky Thomas
It's probably from Mahican or one of the New England Algonquian languages, where the morpheme for "by-mouth" (seen in "chew" = "crush-by-mouth") is -aht- or -at-. In Delaware, this morpheme is -and-.
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble. -Samuel Johnson
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