does anyone need another example of positive ANYMORE?

Gregory McNamee gm at GREGORYMCNAMEE.COM
Fri Feb 15 14:53:50 UTC 2008


Some standard sources--I'll hunt up references, but one is an
autobiography by a Yavapai (Kekwevaya) Indian scout that I've been
editing--say that "Tonto," meaning stupid or foolish, was an insult
given to an Apache band that allowed Spanish types to pass through
unharmed, rather than attack them at once. Other sources (see http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz/faq/etymology.htm
, e.g.) say that "Tonto" is a gloss for what the Chiricahua Apaches
called that group, a phrase meaning "wild people." The high-pitched
business is, I'm betting, yet another of Wikipedia's many inventions,
which is a natural consequence of the encyclopedia anyone can edit.

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