Origin of The Name
Besides the Lake of the Ozarks creek and the creek near St. Louis there is also an Auglaize River in Michigan/Ohio. Grand Glaize on the Auglaize River near Fort Defiance, Ohio is thought to be the birthplace of Chief Pontiac.
According to List of Ohio county name etymologies the etymology could be French for eau glaise meaning 'dirty water' (though the reference is to 'clay'). The Ohio site also mentions that it could be a Native American term for 'fallen timbers' or 'overgrown with brush', or French 'at the (salt) lick'. Lakehistory.info suggests it could have been the French term la glace, which means 'mirror', or 'ice' There is something to be said for the unattested eau glaise 'clay water', like attested terre glaise 'clay soil', but both Ramsey and Stewart agree that Auglaize (and variants, implying "*aux glaises") is American French for 'at the lick(s)', literally 'at the clays', where wild beasts came to lick salt and minerals from the soil, and fulfilling the lacuna in standard French for a "salt lick." The spelling "glaize" is archaic (as in Cotgrave's French-English dictionary of 1611). In addition, in Arkansas there is a creek and mountain Glazypeau, from French glaise à Paul 'Paul's lick'. The assumed indigenous American (Algonquian) "'fallen timbers' or 'overgrown with brush'" has no support without any attested etymons supplied and would not match phonetically in the case of Shawnee.
Read more about this topic: Grandglaize Creek
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