More on DARE "hump puss"="skunk"

[David Robertson]

Howdy (not a borrowing from 'klahowya'),

Some time ago I mentioned a Northwest US English term, 'hump puss,' that's
borrowed from Chinook Jargon 'hum opoots' (hEm upuch).  In both languages
this means 'skunk.'

In a heap of discarded books today I discovered something really
interesting.  (One man's garbage is a linguist's treasure.)  This was the
entire questionnaire originally used years ago by fieldworkers employed in
making the Dictionary of American Regional English.

This 325-page gem contains the information that various dialect names
for 'skunk' are:

civet
civvy cat
polecat
stink-pussy
stink-cat
woods pussy

And for 'porcupine' there is:

quill cat

Now, since I was ignorant of most of these till today, suddenly 'hump
puss' makes a lot of sense.  There was an established comparison of skunks
with cats, I gather, by the time when English-speakers were using CJ words
in the Northwest.  So the transformation from 'hum opoots'
(literally 'smell(y) butt/tail') to 'hump puss' had pretty strong
motivation.  The chance similarity between Chinook Jargon and English, and
between skunks' bodies and cats', apparently led someone to reinterpret
the CJ as English.

My next meditation will be on eulachon, and how this became known
as 'hooligans' in Alaskan English.  :-)

--Dave R.