[Shildrake,] or Sheldrake, given as the name of Furnace Brook, takes that name from an extended forest known in local records as "The Furnace Woods." By exchange of l and n, it is probably from Schind, "Spruce-pine" (Zeisb.); aki, "Land" or place. Schindikeu, "Spruce forest" ("Hemlock woods," Anthony). (See Shinnec'ock.) Furnace Brook takes that name from an ancient furnace on its bank. In 1734 it was known as "The old-mill stream." Jamawissa, quoted as its Indian name, seems to be an aspirated form of Tamaquese, "Small beaver." (See Jamaica.)
[Sing-Sing]—Sinsing, Van der Donck; Sintsing, treaty of 1645—usually translated, "At the standing-stone," and "Stone upon stone," means "At the small stones," or "Place of small stones"—from assin "stone;" is, diminutive, and ing, locative. Ossinsing, the name of the town, has the same meaning; also, Sink-sink, L. I., ind Assinising, Chemung County. The interpretation is literally sustained in the locative on the Hudson.
[Tuckahoe,] town of East Chester, is from Ptuckweōō, "It is round." It was the name of a bulbous root which was used by the Indians for food and for making bread, or round loaves. (See Tuckahoe, L. I.)
[Kitchiwan,] modern form; Kitchawanc, treaty of 1643; Kichtawanghs, treaty of 1645; Kitchiwan, deed of 1645; Kitchawan, treaty of 1664; the name of a stream in Westchester County from which extended to an Indian clan, "Is," writes Dr. Albert S. Gatschet of the Bureau of Ethnology, "an equivalent of Wabenaki-ke'dshwan, -kidshuan, suffixed verbal stem, meaning 'Running Swiftly,' 'Rushing water,' or current, whether over rapids or not. Sas-katchéwan, Canada, 'The roiley, rushing stream'; assisku, 'Mud, dirt.' (Cree.) The prefix ki or ke, is nothing else than an abbreviation of kitchi, 'great,' 'large,' and here 'strong.' Examples are frequent as -kitchuan, -kitchawan, Mass.; kesi-itsooaⁿn or taⁿn, Abn., Kussi-tchuan, Mass., 'It swift flows.' The prefix is usually applied to streams which rise in the highlands and flow down rapidly descending slopes." The final k in some of the early forms, indicates pronunciation with the guttural aspirate, as met in wank and wangh in other local names. [FN] The final s is a foreign plural usually employed to express "people," or tribe. The stream is now known as the Croten from Cnoten, the name of a resident sachem, which by exchange of n and r, becomes Croten, an equivalent, wrote Dr. Schoolcraft of Noten, Chip., "The wind." "Bounded on the south by Scroton's River" (deed of 1703); "Called by the Indians Kightawank, and by the English Knotrus River." (Col. N. Y, Land Papers, 79.)
[FN] Dr. Trumbull wrote in the Natick (Mass.) dialect, "Kussitchuan, -uwan, impersonal verb, 'It flows in a rapid stream,' a current; it continues flowing; as a noun, 'a rapid stream.'" In Cree, Kussehtanne, "Flowing as a stream" In Delaware, -tanne has its equivalent in -hanne. "The impersonal verb termination -awan, -uan, etc., is sometimes written with the participial and subjunctive k" (ka or gh.) (Gerard.) The k or gh appears in some forms of Kitchawan. (See Waronawanka.)
[Titicus,] given as the name of a branch of the Croton flowing from Connecticut, is of record Mutighticos and Matightekonks, translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mat'uhtugh-ohke, "Place without wood," from which extended to the stream. (See Mattituck and Sackonck.)
[Navish] is claimed as the name of Teller's (now Croton) Point, on a reading of the Indian deed of 1683: "All that parcel, neck or point of land, with the meadow ground or valley adjoining, situate, lying and being on the east side of the river over against Verdrietig's Hooke, commonly called and known by the name of Slauper's Haven and by the Indians Navish, the meadow being called by the Indians Senasqua." Clearly, Navish refers to Verdrietig Hook, on the west side of the river, where it is of record. It is an equivalent of Newás (Len.), "promontory." (See Nyack-on-the-Hudson.)
[Nannakans,] given as the name of a clan residing on Croton River, is an equivalent of Narragans (s foreign plural), meaning "People of the point," the locative being Croton Point. (See Nyack.) This clan, crushed by the war of 1643-5, removed to the Raritan country, where, by dialectic exchange of n and r, they were known as Raritanoos, or Narritans. They were represented, in 1649, by Pennekeck, "The chief behind the Kul, having no chief of their own." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii.) The interpretation given to their removal, by some writers, viz., "That the Wappingers removed to New Jersey," is only correct in a limited sense. The removal was of a single clan or family. The Indians on both sides of the Hudson here were of kindred stock and were largely intermarried. (See Raritans and Pomptons.)
[Senasqua,] quoted as the name of Teller's Point (now Croton Point), and also as the name of Teller's Neck, is described as "A meadow," presumably on the neck or point. It is an equivalent of Del. Lenaskqual, "Original grass," (Zeisb.), i. e. grass which was supposed to have grown on the land from the beginning. (Heck.) Called "Indian grass" to distinguish it from "Whitemen's grass." [FN]