Munchausen

[Chris F Waigl]

James A. Landau wrote:
>
> However, Chapter Thirty-First "Arriving in North America, we were received by the President of the United States with every honor and politeness.  He was pleased to give us all the information possible relative to the woods and immense regions of America, and ordered trops of the different tribes of the Esquimaux to guide us..."
>
> (Another anachronism: there were no "Eskimos" in the United States until 1959.  Also, what is the plural of "Inuit", or is it its own plural?)
>

Hm, yes, but in "the immense regions of America" there were Esquimaux
earlier. TLFi dates the French word in this particular sense from the
17th century:

====
1691 subst. masc. plur. /eskimaux/ « habitants des régions arctiques de
l'Amérique » (CHRESTIEN LE CLERC, /Nouv. relation de la Gaspesie,/ 453
ds QUEM. /DDL/ t. 13);
http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/fast.exe?mot=esquimau
====

Chris Waigl
and then there is the ice-cream sense of course

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