Mauch Chunk (Penn.) is from Del. machk, 'bear' and wachtschunk, 'at, or on, the mountain,'—according to Heckewelder, who writes 'Machkschúnk,' or the Delaware name of 'the bear's mountain.'
In the Abnaki and some other Algonkin dialects, the substantival component of mountain names is -ádené,—an inseparable noun-generic. Katahdin (pronounced Ktaadn by the Indians of Maine), Abn. Ket-ádené, 'the greatest (or chief) mountain,' is the equivalent of 'Kittatinny,' the name of a ridge of the Alleghanies, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
8. -komuk or komako (Del. -kamik, -kamiké; Abn. -kamighe; Cree, -gómmik; Powhatan, -comaco;) cannot be exactly translated by any one English word. It denotes 'place,' in the sense of enclosed, limited or appropriated space. As a component of local names, it means, generally, 'an enclosure,' natural or artificial; such as a house or other building, a village, a planted field, a thicket or place surrounded by trees, &c. The place of residence of the Sachem, which (says Roger Williams) was "far different from other houses [wigwams], both in capacity, and in the fineness and quality of their mats," was called sachimâ-komuk, or, as Edward Winslow wrote it, 'sachimo comaco,'—the Sachem-house. Werowocomoco, Weramocomoco, &c. in Virginia, was the 'Werowance's house,' and the name appears on Smith's map, at a place "upon the river Pamauncke [now York River], where the great King [Powhatan] was resident."
Kuppi-komuk, 'closed place,' 'secure enclosure,' was the name of a Pequot fastness in a swamp, in Groton, Conn. Roger Williams wrote this name "Cuppacommock," and understood its meaning to be "a refuge, or hiding place." Eliot has kuppóhkomuk for a planted 'grove,' in Deut. xvi. 21, and for a landing-place or safe harbor, Acts xxvii. 40.
Nashaue-komuk, 'half-way house,' was at what is now Chilmark, on Martha's Vineyard, where there was a village of praying Indians[40] in 1698, and earlier.
The Abnaki keta-kamig[oo] means, according to Râle, 'the main land,'—literally, 'greatest place;' teteba-kamighé, 'level place,' a plain; pépam-kamighek, 'the all land,' 'l'univers.'
Néssa[oo]a-kamíghé, meaning 'double place' or 'second place,' was the name of the Abnaki village of St. Francis de Sales, on the St. Lawrence,[41]—to which the mission was removed about 1700, from its first station established near the Falls of the Chaudière in 1683.[42]
9. Of two words meaning Island, munnohan or, rejecting the formative, munnoh (Abn. menahan; Del. menatey; Chip. minís, a diminutive,) is the more common, but is rarely, if ever, found in composition. The 'Grand Menan,' opposite Passammaquoddy Bay, retains the Abnaki name. Long Island was Menatey or Manati, 'the Island,'—to the Delawares, Minsi and other neighboring tribes. Any smaller island was menatan (Mass. munnohhan), the indefinite form, or menates (Mass. munnises, manisses), the diminutive. Campanius mentions one 'Manathaan,' Coopers' Island (now Cherry Island) near Fort Christina, in the Delaware,[43] and "Manataanung or Manaates, a place settled by the Dutch, who built there a clever little town, which went on increasing every day,"—now called New York. (The termination in -ung is the locative affix.) New York Island was sometimes spoken of as 'the island'—'Manaté,' 'Manhatte;' sometimes as 'an island'—Manathan, Menatan, 'Manhatan;' more accurately, as 'the small island'—Manhaates, Manattes, and 'the Manados' of the Dutch. The Island Indians collectively, were called Manhattans; those of the small island, 'Manhatesen.' "They deeply mistake," as Gov. Stuyvesant's agents declared, in 1659,[44] "who interpret the general name of Manhattans, unto the particular town built upon a little Island; because it signified the whole country and province."
Manisses or Monasses, as Block Island was called, is another form of the diminutive,—from munnoh; and Manhasset, otherwise written, Munhansick, a name of Shelter Island, is the same diminutive with the locative affix, munna-es-et. So is 'Manusses' or 'Mennewies,' an island near Rye, N.Y.,—now written (with the southern form of the locative,) Manussing.
Montauk Point, formerly Montauket, Montacut, and by Roger Williams, Munnawtawkit, is probably from manati, auke, and -it locative; 'in the Island country,' or 'country of the Islanders.'