Jewitt etc [addendum]

[Mike Cleven]

At 07:36 PM 1/19/99 -0800, David Robertson wrote:
>Howdy Jim,
>
>I dunno, that etymology just doesn't wash for me.  "Pasisi" doesn't sound
>like "pasay-", and reduplication of syllables in Old Chinook wouldn't
>operate in such a way as to produce a resemblance!

I'm curious to know what the original source of "pasisi" (paseese) is.  The
reason I'm wondering is because "cloth" was a new trade good in the NW; the
closest native parallel would have been kalakhwatie, which is not exactly
"cloth"; and the word bears no resemblance.  Is it from a Plains/Woodland
language, perhaps (like papoose?) brought in by the voyageurs.

One idea - not linguistically viable perhaps - is that it is a corruption
of "tapis" (Fr. "cloth"), a word heard but ill-remembered by native traders
that became entrenched within the region for the new tradegoods.....