[Pachquyak,] Pachquyak, Paquiage, etc., forms of the name of the third flat (Pachquayack, 1678), given also as the name of a flat "in the Great Imbocht," [FN] is the equivalent of Panqua-auke, Mass., "Clear land, open country." Brodhead wrote Paquiage as the name of the place on the west side of the Hudson to which the followers of King Philip retreated in 1675, but the name may have been that of any other open or unoccupied land west of the Hudson. (See Potik.)
[FN] Dutch Inbocht, "In the bend," "bay," etc. "Great" was added as an identification of the particular bend spoken off.
[Paskaecq]—"a certain piece of land at Katskill, on the north side of the kill, called by the Indians Paskaecq, lying under a hill to the west of it." Conveyed to Jan Bronk in 1674-5. The name describes a vale, cleft or valley. It is widely distributed. (See Paskack.)
[Assiskowachok] or Assiskowacheck, the name of record as that of the fourth flat, is no doubt from Assiskeu, "Mud"—Assiskew-aughk-ûk, "At (or on) a muddy place."
[Potic,] the name of the fifth flat, is also of record Potick, Potatik, and Potateuck, probably an equivalent of Powntuckûk (Mass.), denoting, "Country about the falls." (Trumbull.) From the flat the name was extended to a hill and to a creek in the town of Athens. Hubbard, in his "History of Indian Wars," assigns the same name to a place on the east side of Hudson's River. (See Pachquyak and Schaghticoke.)
[Ganasnix] and Ganasenix, given as the name of a creek constituting the southern boundary of the Lockerman Patent (1686), seems to be an orthography of Kaniskek, which see.
[Waweiantepakook,] Waweantepakoak, Wawantepekoak, are forms of a name given as that of "a high round hill" near Catskill. The description reads: "A place on the northeast side of a brook called Kiskatamenakook, on the west side of a hill called Waweantepakoak." (Land Papers, 242.) The location has not been ascertained. Antpéch (Antpek, Zeisb.), means "Head." In Mass. (Eliot), Puhkuk—Muppukuk, "A head." Wawei is a reduplicative of Wai or Way; it means, "Many windings around," or deviations from a direct line. The name is sufficiently explained by the description, "On the west side of a hill," or a hill-side, but descriptive of a hill resembling a head—"high, erect"—with the accessory meaning of superiority. "Indian Head" is now applied to one of the peaks of the Catskills. The parts of the body were sometimes applied by the Indians to inanimate objects just as we apply them in English—head of a cove, leg of a table, etc. (See Wawayanda.)
[Kiskatom,] a village and a stream of water so called in Greene County, appears in two forms in original records, Kiskatammeeche and Kiskatamenakoak. The abbreviated form, Kiskatom, appears in 1708, more particularly describing "A certain tract by a place called Kiskatammeeche, beginning at a turn of Catrick's Kill ten chains below where Kiskatammeeche Kill watereth into Catrick's Kill," and "Under the great mountain called Kiskatameck." Dr. Trumbull wrote: "Kiskato-minak-auke, 'Place of thin-shelled nuts,' or shag-bark hickory nuts." He explained: "Shag-bark hickory nuts, 'nuts to be cracked by the teeth,' are the 'Kiskatominies' and 'Kisky Thomas nuts' of the descendants of the Dutch colonists of New Jersey and New York." (Comp. Ind. Geographical Names.)
[Kaniskek,] or Caniskek, of record as the name of Athens, is described in original deeds: "A certain tract of land on the west side of North River opposite Claverack, called Caniskek, which stretches along the river from the lands of Peter Bronck down to the valley lying near the point of the main land behind the Barren Island, called Mackawameck," now known as Black Rock, at the south part of Athens. The description covers the long marshy flat in front of Athens, or between Athens and Hudson. The name seems to be from Quana (Quinnih, Eliot), "Long"; -ask, the radical of all names meaning grass, marsh, meadow, etc., and -ek, formative—literally, "Long marsh or meadow." The early settlement at Athens was called Loonenburgh, from one Jan van Loon, who located there in 1706. Esperanza succeeded this name and was followed by Athens. The particular place of first settlement is described as running "from the corner called Mackawameck west into the woodland to the Kattskill road or path, which land is called Loonenburgh." Athens is from the capital of the ancient Greek State of Attica.