"Windy CIty" wrong again! (JUST SHOOT ME!)

[carljweber]

<<
Barry Popik wrote
... Anyway, a ProQuest (not full text, either) check of "Windy City" and
"1893" or "nickname" turned up a January 22nd Chicago Tribune story by Jim
Kirk (What context?) and this:

WEATHER FACT
_Chicago Tribune_, Chicago, Ill.; January 18, 2002
Metro
Pg. 12
Abstract:
Dana, Charles: (1819-1897) Editor if the New York City Sun who, in 1893,
weary...
<<

... i.e., as Barry Popik says, "NY SUN EDITOR CHARLES DANA NEITHER
ORIGINATED NOR POPULARIZED CHICAGO NICKNAME 'THE WINDY CITY'"

And furthermore, "Chicago" does not answer to "skunk" or "onion" save by
playful homonymy with a particular use of the Indian skunk word -- a use
noted in a dictionary at the time (c. 1720) as an "abusive" use. Rather,
although "Chicago" did pass into English from the Indians, it WAS NOT
originally Amerindian -- they got it from the French and the French got it
from the Spanish -- earliest attested in DeSoto narratives as "great river"
(c. 1600). The last part of the word is "-agua". The Spanish people in
Chicago will love me -- discoverer of their long lost contribution. I
studied this material for five years, sorting it out  -- the history, the
linguistics, and the maps. I found the earliest attestations in a text and
on a map. I found lots of things. LaSalle popularized the name and put it on
the map as an important link in his developing plans for the vast Louisiana.
IMHO, I have the most expertise on the maps. "Chicago," originally applied
to the corridor from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River, and had the
elegantly mundane significance, "great water route." Chicago does not know
this part of its historical roots.

Slayers of etymological dragons, demons, and dodos, take note: Barry Popik's
Windy City etymology is riding piggy style on the big shoulders of
"Chicago's" real etymology. When I can snatch some media attention for my
own investigations, Barry Popik's credit will be part and parcel of my
presentation -- so far, he's been skunked.

BTW
"skunked" < "Chicagoed", c. 1890. For years, the Chicago baseball team was
unbeatable. The team typically prevented the opposing team from scoring --
they "Chicagoed 'em". The association of Chicago's "skunk" folk etymology
(in the popular imagination) gave the transferred meaning, "Chicagoed" >
"skunked" -- defeated and prevented from scoring, used by sports writers --
CJW

Carl Jeffrey Weber
Chicago









   Carl Weber believes that I'll get redemption.  I don't believe that's
possible after all these years.
   By the way, remember the Chicago Public Library?  Where "Windy City" is
wrong on its web site in two places?  Remember, months ago, when I was told
that the site would be corrected?  It hasn't been changed at all.
   Please, somebody, anybody, maybe Oprah, in the City of Chicago, buy a gun
and shoot me.