FW: Indian Summer, The Smoky Mountains, and pollution

[Frank Abate]

Re what Sam Clements (see, the reports of his death WERE greatly
exaggerated!) says below:

1. I don't know earliest usage dates for the Smokies and the Blue Ridge, but
they are on my list of things to try to find out for the US placenames dict
I am working on.  No info on ultimate origins/earliest known use in the
first places I checked -- Harder, Stewart, Hobson.

2. For Indian summer, since it has now come up, I want to throw out to the
lists a theory I have on this -- that, in the same vein as the disparaging
terms using "Dutch" (D. courage, etc.), this TOO is simply a disparaging
term.  The idea is that Indians were thought of as deceptive or fickle by
early white settlers, and so the term arose in reference to a brief period
in the fall when it appears that summer has returned, when in fact it has
not -- the period is merely the last few days of fairly warm daytime temps
before the fall and winter freezing daytime temps begin consistently.

I believe Mencken proposes the above etym in his American Language.  Though
it likely cannot be proven as the origin of the term, it has the "ring of
truth", it seems to me, even though it is not PC.  The early white settlers
never heard of no PC, of course.

So maybe some folks on the lists can bring some more facts forward?  Early
cites, esp. antedatings of the late 1700s, would be great.

Frank Abate

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Sam Clements
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 8:17 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Indian Summer, The Smoky Mountains, and pollution


If I have my facts straight, "Indian Summer" goes back in print to the late
1700's.  The cite from Mathews says "...a short interval of smoke and
mildness."  What was the origin of the smoke?  Man-made or simply natural
tree pollution?  Water vapor?

When did the Smoky's get their name?  Again, water vapor, tree pollution, or
what?

When do the "Blue Ridge" mountains in Va. get their name?  Again, related to
"blue" colored mists?