Ozark etymology -- LONG [was Ozark Pudding (1949)]

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:47 AM -0500 2/11/03, Frank Abate wrote:
>
>So the "-ark" of "Ozark" and the "Ark-" of "Arkansas," names applied to many
>geographic features and political divisions, are the same element, stemming
>from a shortening of the French designation for one village of the Quapaw
>Sioux.  That village was in eastern Arkansas, near the Mississippi, while
>the Ozarks are in the western part of the state.  So the name (despite being
>a shortening) has a long and widespread history.  You might say that the
>shortening gave rise to the name Ozark.
>
>The "bow" theory, far from being a mot juste, is actually, at best, a beau
>jest.  And that's no bon mot.
>
>Frank Abate
>(currently working on a dict of US placename origins, to be published by
>Oxford UP next year)

Looking forward to it.  Sounds like a great idea.  Thanks (to you and
Bruce Hunter) for the low-down.  So we get to add

_Ozarks_ < "aux Arcs" = 'Quapaw Indians', so-called because they used bows

to our (growing) inventory of etymythological derivations.  I thought
it seemed a bit too clever.

larry