AboutTed Nesbitt Expertise I have an interest in the meanings of words and phrases, as well as how and when they became part of the English language. I enjoy
researching idioms, colloquialisms, dialects, and obscurities of
all kinds. I prefer short questions on a particular subject, and
I will not accept lengthy research projects or term papers. NOTE: ALLEXPERTS CLAIMS THAT I TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH TO LATIN AND FROM LATIN TO ENGLISH. I DO NOT. ALLEXPERTS REFUSES TO DELETE THE LATIN-TO-ENGLISH SERVICE -- ONE THAT I DO NOT PROVIDE.
TRUST ME ON THIS: ALLEXPERTS IS WRONG. I DO NOT TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH TO LANGUAGE. LOOK FOR A LANGUAGE EXPERT INSTEAD. ETYMOLOGY AND TRANSLATING SERVICES ARE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. ALLEXPERTS SHOULD KNOW THAT. ALLEXPERTS DOES NOT KNOW THAT. I HAVE TRIED FOR MANY YEARS TO GET THEM TO CHANGE. THEY WILL NOT. SORRY, BUT I DO NOT TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH TO LATIN.
Experience I am the bibliographic instruction and reference librarian at a public
college. My master's thesis concerns William Faulkner's tragic novels. I formerly taught advanced placement English at two schools in the Philadelphia area.
I have been a member of the grammar and writing section of Allexperts
for more than a year.
Education/Credentials Masters degrees in English, philosophy, and library science.
Question Hi Ted,
I know how to say thank you!
Thank you for reading my question and hopefully supplying
a definitive answer.
What is the meaning of the word "teton"?
Does it have multiple origins?
Answer Dear Warren:
I started working on your question about five hours ago. Then a student, who is having personal problems, needed me. That took about two hours. I'm home now and have been trying to write your answer and deal with the student's problems over phone calls.
About your question -- I have had the same question at least three times, going back at least seven years. I tried to find my previous answers, but Allexperts doesn't save them back that far.
I used three geographical "place names" reference books from our library. Two of them gave ONE explanation, and the other gave a different one.
If you have done any searching of the internet, you know that there is a great deal of disagreement on the origin of "teton" for the name of the mountain(s) and the various streams in Wyoming that bear the name.
I copied several of the internet definitions while I was still at my office in the library, but, unfortunately I didn't e-mail the file to myself. In other words, I don't have access to my previous work . . . and I left the three books on my desk. [Believe me, today was a very rough day, and it's not over yet!]
You can easily find these internet references by using Google and searching for "teton meaning."
You asked if the word has "multiple origins." There ARE two, but only one of them can possibly be right. The problem is that NO ONE knows which one it is.
I belong to a librarians' listserv for sharing difficult reference questions, and I posed the problem to that group many years ago [there are over 1,600 librarians, professors, and other information professionals from many countries]. I was hoping to get a response from a librarian in Wyoming, and I lucked out.
Here are the two possible explanations:
1. Some French explorers came upon Grand Teton Mountain and the other "tetons" that are near the big one. They thought the mountains looked like women's breasts. The French word for "breast" is "teton," and its English equivalent is "teat."
2. The Sioux Indian Nation is comprised of various tribes, including the Oglala, the Kiowa, and the TETONS. This tribe actually lived in what is now Wyoming.
The librarian in Wyoming insisted that #2 is the correct explanation. After all, the French did NOT name the Indian tribes!
For reasons that no one has been able to explain, however, the French explorer version is the one that appears in MOST dictionaries, including Webster's and Random House.
The "granddaddy" of ALL dictionaries, considered by most etymologists to be the "bible" of word and phrase origins, goes with the Indian derivation. It is "The Oxford English Dictionary [OED]" -- a 20-volume set that traces the FIRST WRITTEN appearance in the English language of words and phrases.
Here is the entry from the OED:
TETON
a. (A member of) a Western division of the Dakota or Sioux Indian people.
1806 Message from President of U.S., communicating Discoveries made in exploring the Missouri by Captains Lewis & Clark 32 This trade, as small as it may appear, has been sufficient to render the Tetones independent of the trade of the Missouri. 1840 N.Y. Mirror 4 July 12/3 His household was the whole tribe of the Teton Dahcotas. 1873 Forest & Stream 9 Oct. 133/1 For several hours we followed on the trail of the Tetons. 1937 R. H. LOWIE Hist. Ethnol. Theory ix. 133 Boas has trained Miss Ella Delovia to take down Teton stories among her people. 1975 J. A. HANSON Metal Weapons, Tools, & Ornaments of Teton Dakota Indians i. 3 The Tetons, who spoke Lakota, took their name from the term Titonwan, ‘Dwellers of the Prairie’.
b. The dialect spoken by this people.
1911 F. BOAS Handbk. Amer. Indian Lang. (U.S. Bureau Amer. Ethnol. Bull. No. 40) 880 We give here the description of the Teton as obtained by Dr. Swanton. 1933 [see DAKOTA n. 2]. 1976 W. L. CHAFE in T. A. Sebeok Native Lang. Americas I. 542 There are usually said to be four major Dakota dialects: Santee (Dakota proper), Teton (Lakota), and Yankton and Assiniboine.
***
Thus, the first appearance of the word in the English language was from Lewis and Clark in 1806. Of course, the word was used ORALLY long before that.
The French owned the Louisiana territory until 1803, when Thomas Jefferson created the "Louisiana Purchase." That president then sent Lewis and Clark to explore all the purchased territory.
There is NO written record of the French explorers. Consequently, the OED has no choice but to go with Lewis and Clark [who spelled the tribe's name as "tetones"].
One of the librarians who responded to my query of many years ago mentioned that the subject was covered in this book: The book "From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame" by Mark Monmonier (University of Chicago Press, 2006) goes into more detail on the subject of controversial place names.
I do not have the book and have never seen it.
Finally, the "usual" answer to your question is that the name came from the French explorers.
I reject that explanation. It is just too much of a coincidence that there was an EXISTING Indian tribe that already HAD the name. Therefore, I think that the French explanation is an "urban legend," if there can be "urban legends" in the wilds of Wyoming.
If you would like me to send you the information from the three reference books, get back to me. Frankly, they won't give you any more information than I have already written. But, you will have published sources -- that give the two different answers.
OR, you can check with a reference librarian at your local library. Most libraries will have "place name dictionaries."
It will take me a while to type out that information, but I will do it, if you request it.
