6. Rock. In composition, -pisk or -psk (Abn. pesk[oo]; Cree, -pisk; Chip. -bik;) denotes hard or flint-like rock;[31] -ompsk or onbsk, and, by phonetic corruption, -msk, (from ompaé, 'upright,' and -pisk,) a 'standing rock.' As a substantival component of local names, -ompsk and, with the locative affix, -ompskut, are found in such names as—
Petukqui-ompskut, corrupted to Pettiquamscut, 'at the round rock.' Such a rock, on the east side of Narrow River, north-east from Tower Hill Church in South Kingston, R.I., was one of the bound marks of, and gave a name to, the "Pettiquamscut purchase" in the Narragansett country.
Wanashqui-ompskut (wanashquompsqut, Ezekiel xxvi. 14), 'at the top of the rock,' or at 'the point of rock.' Wonnesquam, Annis Squam, and Squam, near Cape Ann, are perhaps corrupt forms of the name of some 'rock summit' or 'point of rock' thereabouts. Winnesquamsaukit (for wanashqui-ompsk-ohk-it?) near Exeter Falls, N.H., has been transformed to Swampscoate and Squamscot. The name of Swamscot or Swampscot, formerly part of Lynn, Mass., has a different meaning. It is from m'squi-ompsk, 'Red Rock' (the modern name), near the north end of Long Beach, which was perhaps "The clifte" mentioned as one of the bounds of Mr. Humfrey's Swampscot farm, laid out in 1638.[32] M'squompskut means 'at the red rock.' The sound of the initial m was easily lost to English ears.[33]
Penobscot, a corruption of the Abnaki panna[oo]anbskek, was originally the name of a locality on the river so called by the English. Mr. Moses Greenleaf, in a letter to Dr. Morse in 1823, wrote 'Pe noom´ ske ook' as the Indian name of Old Town Falls, "whence the English name of the River, which would have been better, Penobscook." He gave, as the meaning of this name, "Rocky Falls." The St. Francis Indians told Thoreau, that it means "Rocky River."[34] 'At the fall of the rock' or 'at the descending rock' is a more nearly exact translation. The first syllable, pen- (Abn. panna) represents a root meaning 'to fall from a height,'—as in pann-tek[oo], 'fall of a river' or 'rapids;' penan-ki, 'fall of land,' the descent or downward slope of a mountain, &c.
Keht-ompskqut, or 'Ketumpscut' as it was formerly written,[35]—'at the greatest rock,'—is corrupted to Catumb, the name of a reef off the west end of Fisher's Island.
Tomheganomset[36]—corrupted finally to 'Higganum,' the name of a brook and parish in the north-east part of Haddam,—appears to have been, originally, the designation of a locality from which the Indians procured stone suitable for making axes,—tomhegun-ompsk-ut, 'at the tomahawk rock.' In 'Higganompos,' as the name was sometimes written, without the locative affix, we have less difficulty in recognizing the substantival -ompsk.
Qussuk, another word for 'rock' or 'stone,' used by Eliot and Roger Williams, is not often—perhaps never found in local names. Hassun or Assun (Chip. assin´; Del. achsin;) appears in New England names only as an adjectival (assuné, assini, 'stony'), but farther north, it occasionally occurs as the substantival component of such names as Mistassinni, 'the Great Stone,' which gives its name to a lake in British America, to a tribe of Indians, and to a river that flows into St. John's Lake.[37]
7. Wadchu (in composition, -adchu) means, always, 'mountain' or 'hill.' In Wachuset, we have it, with the locative affix -set, 'near' or 'in the vicinity of the mountain,'—a name which has been transferred to the mountain itself. With the adjectival massa, 'great,' is formed mass-adchu-set, 'near the great mountain,' or 'great hill country,'—now, Massachusetts.
'Kunckquachu' and 'Quunkwattchu,' mentioned in the deeds of Hadley purchase, in 1658,[38] are forms of qununkqu-adchu, 'high mountain,'—afterwards belittled as 'Mount Toby.'
'Kearsarge,' the modern name of two well-known mountains in New Hampshire, disguises k[oo]wass-adchu, 'pine mountain.' On Holland's Map, published in 1784, the southern Kearsarge (in Merrimack county) is marked "Kyarsarga Mountain; by the Indians, Cowissewaschook."[39] In this form,—which the termination ok (for ohke, auke, 'land,') shows to belong to the region, not exclusively to the mountain itself,—the analysis becomes more easy. The meaning of the adjectival is perhaps not quite certain. K[oo]wa (Abn. k[oo]é) 'a pine tree,' with its diminutive, k[oo]wasse, is a derivative,—from a root which means 'sharp,' 'pointed.' It is possible, that in this synthesis, the root preserves its primary signification, and that 'Kearsarge' is the 'pointed' or 'peaked mountain.'