Near the eastern boundary of the Pequot country, was the river which the Narragansetts called Paquat-tuk, sometimes written Paquetock, now Pawcatuck, 'Pequot river,'—the present eastern boundary of Connecticut. Another adjectival prefix, pohki or pahke, 'pure,' 'clear,' found in the name of several tidal streams, is hardly distinguishable from the former, in the modern forms of Pacatock, Paucatuck, &c.
Quinni-tuk is the 'long tidal-river.' With the locative affix, Quinni-tuk-ut, 'on long river,'—now Connecticut,—was the name of the valley, or lands both sides of the river. In one early deed (1636), I find the name written Quinetucquet; in another, of the same year, Quenticutt. Roger Williams (1643) has Qunnihticut, and calls the Indians of this region Quintik-óock, i.e. 'the long river people.' The c in the second syllable of the modern name has no business there, and it is difficult to find a reason for its intrusion.
'Lenapewihittuck' was the Delaware name of 'the river of the Lenape,' and 'Mohicannittuck,' of 'the river of the Mohicans' (Hudson River).[8]
Of Pawtucket and Pawtuxet, the composition is less obvious; but we have reliable Indian testimony that these names mean, respectively, 'at the falls' and 'at the little falls.' Pequot and Narragansett interpreters, in 1679, declared that Blackstone's River, was "called in Indian Pautuck (which signifies, a Fall), because there the fresh water falls into the salt water."[9] So, the upper falls of the Quinebaug river (at Danielsonville, Conn.) were called "Powntuck, which is a general name for all Falls," as Indians of that region testified.[10] There was another Pautucket, 'at the falls' of the Merrimac (now Lowell); and another on Westfield River, Mass. Pawtuxet, i.e. pau't-tuk-es-it, is the regularly formed diminutive of paut-tuk-it. The village of Pawtuxet, four miles south of Providence, R.I., is "at the little falls" of the river to which their name has been transferred. The first settlers of Plymouth were informed by Samoset, that the place which they had chosen for their plantation was called 'Patuxet,'—probably because of some 'little falls' on Town Brook.[11] There was another 'Pautuxet,' or 'Powtuxet,' on the Quinebaug, at the lower falls; and a river 'Patuxet' (Patuxent), in Maryland. The same name is ingeniously disguised by Campanius, as 'Poaetquessing,' which he mentions as one of the principal towns of the Indians on the Delaware, just below the lower falls of that river at Trenton; and 'Poutaxat' was understood by the Swedes to be the Indian name both of the river and bay.[12] The adjectival pawt- or pauat- seems to be derived from a root meaning 'to make a loud noise.' It is found in many, perhaps in all Algonkin languages. 'Pawating,' as Schoolcraft wrote it, was the Chippewa name of the Sault Ste. Marie, or Falls of St. Mary's River,—pronounced poú-at-ing´, or pau-at-un, the last syllable representing the locative affix,—"at the Falls." The same name is found in Virginia, under a disguise which has hitherto prevented its recognition. Capt. John Smith informs us that the "place of which their great Emperor taketh his name" of Powhatan, or Pawatan, was near "the Falls" of James River,[13] where is now the city of Richmond. 'Powatan' is pauat-hanne, or 'falls on a rapid stream.'
Acáwmé or Ogkomé (Chip. agami; Abn. aganmi; Del. achgameu;) means 'on the other side,' 'over against,' 'beyond.' As an adjectival, it is found in Acawm-auké, the modern 'Accomac,' a peninsula east of Chesapeake Bay, which was 'other-side land' to the Powhatans of Virginia. The site of Plymouth, Mass., was called 'Accomack' by Capt. John Smith,—a name given not by the Indians who occupied it but by those, probably, who lived farther north, 'on the other side' of Plymouth Bay. The countries of Europe were called 'other-side lands,'—Narr. acawmen-óaki; Abn. aganmen-[oo]ki. With -tuk, it forms acawmen-tuk (Abn. aganmen-teg[oo]), 'other-side river,' or, its diminutive, acawmen-tuk-es (Abn. aganmen-teg[oo]éss[oo]), 'the small other-side river,'—a name first given (as Agamenticus or Accomenticus) to York, Me., from the 'small tidal-river beyond' the Piscataqua, on which that town was planted.
Peske-tuk (Abn. peské-teg[oo]é) denotes a 'divided river,' or a river which another cleaves. It is not generally (if ever) applied to one of the 'forks' which unite to form the main stream, but to some considerable tributary received by the main stream, or to the division of the stream by some obstacle, near its mouth, which makes of it a 'double river.' The primary meaning of the (adjectival) root is 'to divide in two,' and the secondary, 'to split,' 'to divide forcibly, or abruptly.' These shades of meaning are not likely to be detected under the disguises in which river-names come down to our time. Râle translates ne-peské, "je vas dans le chemin qui en coupe un autre:" peskahak[oo]n, "branche."
Piscataqua, Pascataqua, &c., represent the Abn. peské-teg[oo]é, 'divided tidal-river.' The word for 'place' (ohke, Abn. 'ki,) being added, gives the form Piscataquak or -quog. There is another Piscataway, in New Jersey,—not far below the junction of the north and south branches of the Raritan,—and a Piscataway river in Maryland, which empties into the Potomac; a Piscataquog river, tributary to the Merrimac, in New Hampshire; a Piscataquis (diminutive) in Maine, which empties into the Penobscot. Pasquotank, the name of an arm of Albemarle Sound and of a small river which flows into it, in North Carolina, has probably the same origin.
The adjectival peské, or piské, is found in many other compound names besides those which are formed with -tuk or -hanne: as in Pascoag, for peské-auké, in Burrilville, R.I., 'the dividing place' of two branches of Blackstone's River; and Pesquamscot, in South Kingston, R.I., which (if the name is rightly given) is "at the divided (or cleft) rock,"—peské-ompsk-ut,—perhaps some ancient land-mark, on or near the margin of Worden's Pond.
Nôeu-tuk (Nóahtuk, Eliot), 'in the middle of the river,' may be, as Mr. Judd[14] and others have supposed, the name which has been variously corrupted to Norwottock, Nonotuck, Noatucke, Nawottok, &c. If so, it probably belonged, originally to one of the necks or peninsulas of meadow, near Northampton,—such as that at Hockanum, which, by a change in the course of the river at that point, has now become an island.
Tetiquet or Titicut, which passes for the Indian name of Taunton, and of a fishing place on Taunton River in the north-west part of Middleborough, Mass., shows how effectually such names may be disguised by phonetic corruption and mutilation. Kehte-tuk-ut (or as Eliot wrote it in Genesis xv. 18, Kehteihtukqut) means 'on the great river.' In the Plymouth Colony Records we find the forms 'Cauteeticutt' and 'Coteticutt,' and elsewhere, Kehtehticut,—the latter, in 1698, as the name of a place on the great river, "between Taunton and Bridgewater." Hence, 'Teghtacutt,' 'Teightaquid,' 'Tetiquet,' &c.[15]