Nantucket - Origin of The Name

Origin of The Name

Nantucket takes its name from a word in an Eastern Algonquian language of southern New England, originally spelled variously as natocke, nantaticut, nantican, and nautican. The meaning of the term is uncertain, although it may have meant "in the midst of waters," or "far away island." Other sources state the indigenous American word "Natockete," meaning "faraway land," to be the origin of the name. The Wampanoag who lived in Nantucket referred to the island as "Canopache," or "place of peace." The island has a nickname, "The Gray Lady", which refers to the fog that occurs frequently on and about the Island.

Read more about this topic:  Nantucket

Famous quotes containing the words origin of and/or origin:

    The origin of storms is not in clouds,
    our lightning strikes when the earth rises,
    spillways free authentic power:
    dead John Brown’s body walking from a tunnel
    to break the armored and concluded mind.
    Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)

    For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)