Sock It to Me

skunk (SKUHNGK) - n., any of ten species of small omnivorous mammals (three genera of the family Mephitidae) native to the Americas, with a glossy black coat with white markings and two musk glands at the base of the tail for emitting a noxious smell as a defensive measure; (slang) a contemptible person.



Thanks, WikiMedia!

The above being the classic striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) in a defensive posture, indicating that you'd better back off if you don't want to stink. In general, skunks are pretty chill, because they know very few predators want to mess with them more than once -- the only chiller dudes I've met on the trail are porcupines, who are afraid of nobody. The name (picked up extremely soon after Europeans settled in New England) comes from an uncertain Eastern Algonquian language, possibly Massachusett segonku or Abenaki segôgw, both from Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa, from *šek-, spray musk/urine + -a·kw, fox -- and indeed, skunks like foxes do have similar bushy tails. [Sidebar: The same Proto-Algonquian root, via Fox or Miami or Ojibwe then passed through Canadian French, gave us Chicago, "the place of bad smell" understood variously as being wild onions or skunks. Skunktown lol]


And that wraps up a week of Algonquian-named animals. Back next week with the usual random mix, but there's more words from Native American/First Nation languages to be had ... eventually.

---L.