Tellico River - Etymology

Etymology

According to the USGS, variant names of the Tellico River include Delaquay River, Talequo River, Terrique River, and Tellequo River.

The word "Tellico" was the name of several Cherokee towns, the largest of which was Great Tellico, located on the Tellico River near present-day Tellico Plains, Tennessee. In Cherokee the word is more properly written "Talikwa". According to James Mooney, the Cherokee meaning of the word was lost.

The origin of the word is actually Muskogee (Creek.) A Muskogean town named Taliko was thriving on the Tellico River when Spanish explorers visited in area in the mid-16th century. Taliko means "bean" in Muskogee.

If the Mesoamerican origin of Mississippian culture is correct then the origin of the word could also be Nahuatl. The Nahuatl word "tleco" means both "in a fire" and "to ascend." Both of these meanings could refer to Mississippian temple mounds located in Tennessee since at the top of these mounds was kept a perpetual fire within a temple. Thus "to ascend" and "in a fire" could refer to the temple mound, the most important feature of Mississippian towns, since one would have to ascend the mound to reach the fire. Since "temple mound" was nearly synonymous with "town" then this explains why it would become the generic term for "town" among the Cherokee. The Cherokees believe the mounds were actually built by a foreign group known as the Ani-kutani who once lived on the mounds and ruled over them. If true then these foreigners could have come from Mesoamerica which would explain why the word has no meaning in the Cherokee Indian language.