Terms for "white man"

[Bruce Ingham]

On 10/3/04 5:45 pm, "Rory M Larson" <rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:

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> Alfred wrote:
>> One very often reads of wasicun <- wa-sicun [wa-s^i'c^uN] <- sicun (i.e.
>> in the sense given by Riggs).
>> Yet, in today's Native literature, there's commonly(?) referred to a
>> different etymology:
>> was^iN' (fat not dried out, fat meat; pork) +
>> ic^u' (to take, take up anything; accept, receive) -> 'fat-taker'
>> (stealer of fat).
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>> What do you think about it? Is it (maybe biased) 'folk etymology'?
>> (phonologically, this derivation doesn't seem to fit too well.)
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> I heard this explanation too, in the Lakhota class I took about
> ten years ago.  The instructor didn't seem to take it too
> seriously.  I would agree with him and John that it is a biased
> folk etymology that post-dates the original meaning.  Assuming
> that it is a jibe against whites for taking the Indians' land and
> resources, that complaint wouldn't have had any particular salience
> from the Dakotan point of view until well into the 19th century.
> They would have been aware of whites as mysterious foreign beings
> with remarkable equipment that they might obtain through trade
> all through the 18th century if not earlier.  I think it's most
> likely that the term was established from the time that they
> first became aware of the existence of whites, I suppose late in
> the 17th century.
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> Perhaps the Dakotanists could comment on this.
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> Rory
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I agree that the idea that white people, although obviously not spirits, may
with their pale appearance have resembled them is probably the origin.  Note
that the Chinese (or was it the Japanese) used to refer to us as 'foreign
devils' or so one reads.  Also in Persia we were called cheshm zagh meaning
'blue/grey eyed' which alluded to the Jinn (Genies), who were also blue-grey
eyed.
Bruce