Misere (Re: Linguistic term needed)

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004, Michael Mccafferty wrote:
> Right. There were no monks. David Costa explains this ethnonym is
> "Miami-Illinois Tribe Names," Proceedings of the Thirty-first Algonquian
> Conference (2000): 30-53.
>
> The Miami-Illinois term is /mooyiinkweena/ [mooyiingweena].
> |mooyi-iinkwee-na| 'shit'-'face'-independent animate indefinite actor
> suffix.

> In a paper of mine on the place name "Missouri," published last year by
> the onomastic journal Names, I present a short history of the ethnonym
> /mooyiinkweena/. ("On the birthday and etymology of the place name
> Missouri," Names 51.2 (2003), 31-45.

Well, Michael, what do you think about the plausibility of
Mis<grave-e>re/Misera as nicknames for Ste. Genevi<grave-e>ve being
paranomasia(dic?)  (paranomadic?) for Missouri/Misuri?  I realize St(e).
Genevieve is further from the mouth of the Missouri than St. Louis, but I
have the impression Missouri was used a territorial name for the
trans-Mississippi (from your point of view), while Illinois (Ylineses) was
used for the cis-Mississippi.  (Surely Ste. Genevieve des Missouris would
be too good for anyone to pass up?  And if they failed to pass it up too
many times in a row, they'd have to move to St. Louis.)  Ste. Genevieve
was *the* settlement in the trans-Mississippi or Missouri opposite
Illinois for a while until Laclede refused to trust his merchanidise to a
site that was flooded annually and established himself at St. Louis
instead.

I should mention that I've suggested and Michael has rejected the
possibility that Pain Court might be a similiar handling of a compound
like Pez-Caos (Peoria-Cahokia), both groups being near St. Louis at its
founding, with the Peoria later absorbing the Cahokia, but I'm not sure
the resemblance is all that close (less than Misere - Missouri even) and
Michael points out that there don't seem to be other examples hyphenated
names like this.  Also, the Peoria were rather diffusely settled in a
number of places, including Kaskaskia, and seem to have moved quite a bit
and Cao is already associated with another settlement.  Note that Cahokia
(or Cao) was the settlement in Illinois more or less opposite St. Louis or
Pain Court, while Kaskasia (Kas or aux Kas or Oka) was more or less
opposite Ste. Genevieve or Misere.

I haven't quite given up on just Pez as a source for Pain, with Court
making the joke, but I know of no attestation Pez = St. Louis.