Wiskinkie etymology --- (relevance for "skeezicks")

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, there's English _what's-his/her-*face*_ and Russian _litso_
"*face*, (random) person."

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain





On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 6:03 PM, Gerald Cohen <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Gerald Cohen <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Wiskinkie etymology --- (relevance for "skeezicks")
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Stephen Goranson's information below that the person "Wiskinkie"
> (sergeant-at-arms of the Tammany Society) derives from the Algonquin word
> for "eye(s)" is very interesting. Â I'm not sure just how "eye(s)" can
> semantically become a person of some sort, but I see what may be a parallel
> in the word "skeezicks" (rogue, rascal).
>
> James Trumbull's _Natick Dictionnary_ (Natick is an Algonquin language)
> Mention "skeezucks" = "eyes." Â English "skeezicks" is of unknown origin, and
> in my May 2008 Comments on Etymology treatment of this term (pp. 2-6) I
> theorized that Algonquin  "skeezucks" (eye/eyes; face) may be the origin of
> English "skeezicks" (rogue, rascal). Â But the semantic development is not
> yet clear. English "skeezicks," btw, is otherwise of unknown origin.
>
> Goranson's new information provides another instance of an Algonquin word
> for "eye(s)" (incidentally a variant of the same root that appears in
> "skeezucks") coming to refer to a person. Â The semantic development of
> Algonquin "skeezucks" (eye/eyes; face) to English "skeezicks" (rogue,
> rascal) is still not entirely clear, but at least we now see that the term
> for eye(s) can in fact come to refer to a person.
>
>       For Algonquian skeezucks and related forms see James Trumbull¹s
> Natick Dictionary under muskêsuk, n. (p. 70):
> (1) the eye
> (2) the face, Ezek. 10, 14; nusk- kusk-, wuskesuk, my, thy, his face or eye.
> Trumbull adds in brackets:
> Narr. wuskéesuck (his) eye
> Peq. skeezucks, eyes, Stiles
> Muh. hkeesque, eye
> Abn. ne-siseg8k, ma face; 8s- sa face; ne-tsísek8, mon oeil.
> Chip. hkezh ig, skézh ig, eye, face.
> Menom. maish kay shaick, eye; osh kag shayko (his) face.
> Shawn. o skeès a kwèe (his) eye)
> Del. wuschgink, (his) face, Zeisb.
>
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> * Â  * Â  * Â  * Â *
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Stephen Goranson,
> goranson at DUKE.EDU
> Sent: Sun 3/1/2009 8:25 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Wiskinkie etymology
>
>
> OED Wiskinkie
> U.S.
> [Etym. unknown.]
> Â  The official of the Tammany Society of New York charged with the office
> of door-keeper.
> 1800 Commercial Advertiser (N.Y.) 3 Jan. 2/3 Tammany Society, in the
> following order: 1st, The Wiskinkie, supporting the Cap of Liberty veiled in
> crape.....
> ***
>
> Tammany borrowed American Indian names; this apparently comes from such a
> word meaning eye(s).
>
> Watch-Tower, page [4], vol. 8, [col. 4 America's Hist N.] iss. 569
> Publication Date:
> May 12, 1807
> Published as:
> Republican Watch-Tower.
> Location:
> New York, New York
> Headline:
> Tammany Society-or Columbian Order. Grand Anniversary Festival
> Article Type:
> News/Opinion
> [at Tammony] The Wiskinkie will see that no slave or tyrant enters,
>
> Mémoire sur le système grammatical des langues de quelques nations indiennes
> ...
> By Peter Stephen Du Ponceau, Pierre Etienne DuPonceau 1838 Google full view
> p.367
> Algonquin ...Wiskinki 1
> 1 1 Dans certaines sociétés américaines, qui affectent de prendre des
> dénominations indiennes, le grand surveillant s'appelle le Wiskinki.
>
> Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society 1836 p369
> Chippeways
> J. Long.
> ...
> Eye wiskinky
>
> Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society
> Â By Massachusetts...1843 p144 Chippeway (From Long's Travels, Lond. edt.
> 1791)
> 3. Wiskinky (eyes)
> Â presumably a reference to:
> Voyages and travels of an Indian interpreter and trader :
> describing the manners and customs of the North American Indians ; with an
> account of the posts situated on the river Saint Laurence, lake Ontario, &c.
> ; to which is added a vocabulary of the Chippeway language ... [and] a list
> of words in the Iroquois, Mohegan, Shawanee, and Esquimeaux tongues, and a
> table, shewing the analogy between the Algonkin and Chippeway languages /
>
> J Long, Indian trader.
> 1791
> English Book Book x, 295 p. : folded map ; 30 cm.
> London : Printed for the author, and sold by Robson ,
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org