Geoduck (1882)

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:30 PM -0500 11/7/02, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>I would guess it was an attempt to represent the American Indian original,
>which may have had either a glottal stop or [x] in the first syllable; both
>are common in many AmInd languages.  So what was a nonnative speaker to do
>when spelling it in English?

I'd have guessed "gooeyduck", as it's pronounced, or perhaps "gweduc"
(avoiding the folk etymology, and retaining something similar to the
Salish original).  But I was wondering whence the "geo-", since it's
not as if the link to the Greek prefix for "earth" is plausible here.
If anything, the relation to "gooey"ness would be more salient (as
well as more Salish).

L

>At 02:38 PM 11/7/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>>In a message dated 11/7/02 12:21:08 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>>laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:
>>
>>>  Does anyone know how this tasty specimen got to be spelled "geoduck"
>>  >  while being pronounced "gooeyduck"?
>>