[Footnote 37: Hind's Exploration of Labrador, vol. ii. pp. 147, 148.]
7. WADCHU (in composition, -ADCHU) means, always, 'mountain' or 'hill.' In _Wachuset_, we have it, with the locative affix _-set_, 'near' or 'in the vicinity of the mountain,'--a name which has been transferred to the mountain itself. With the adjectival _massa_, 'great,' is formed _mass-adchu-set_, 'near the great mountain,' or 'great hill country,'--now, _Massachusetts_.
'_Kunckquachu_' and '_Quunkwattchu_,' mentioned in the deeds of Hadley purchase, in 1658,[38] are forms of _qunu[n]kqu-adchu_, 'high mountain,'--afterwards belittled as 'Mount Toby.'
[Footnote 38: History of Hadley, 21, 22, 114.]
'_Kearsarge_,' the modern name of two well-known mountains in New Hampshire, disguises _k[oo]wass-adchu_, 'pine mountain.' On Holland's Map, published in 1784, the southern Kearsarge (in Merrimack county) is marked "Kyarsarga Mountain; by the Indians, _Cowissewaschook_."[39] In this form,--which the termination _ok_ (for _ohke_, _auke_, 'land,') shows to belong to the _region_, not exclusively to the mountain itself,--the analysis becomes more easy. The meaning of the adjectival is perhaps not quite certain. _K[oo]wa_ (Abn. _k[oo]é_) 'a pine tree,' with its diminutive, _k[oo]wasse_, is a derivative,--from a root which means 'sharp,' 'pointed.' It is _possible_, that in this synthesis, the root preserves its primary signification, and that 'Kearsarge' is the 'pointed' or 'peaked mountain.'
[Footnote 39: W.F. Goodwin, in Historical Magazine, ix. 28.]
_Mauch Chunk_ (Penn.) is from Del. _machk_, 'bear' and _wachtschunk_, 'at, or on, the mountain,'--according to Heckewelder, who writes '_Machkschúnk_,' or the Delaware name of 'the bear's mountain.'
In the Abnaki and some other Algonkin dialects, the substantival component of mountain names is -ÁDENÉ,--an inseparable noun-generic. _Katahdin_ (pronounced _Ktaadn_ by the Indians of Maine), Abn. _Ket-ádené_, 'the greatest (or chief) mountain,' is the equivalent of '_Kittatinny_,' the name of a ridge of the Alleghanies, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
8. -KOMUK or KOMAKO (Del. _-kamik_, _-kamiké_; Abn. _-kamighe_; Cree, _-gómmik_; Powhatan, _-comaco_;) cannot be exactly translated by any one English word. It denotes 'place,' in the sense of _enclosed_, _limited_ or _appropriated_ space. As a component of local names, it means, generally, 'an enclosure,' natural or artificial; such as a house or other building, a village, a planted field, a thicket or place surrounded by trees, &c. The place of residence of the Sachem, which (says Roger Williams) was "far different from other houses [wigwams], both in capacity, and in the fineness and quality of their mats," was called _sachimâ-komuk_, or, as Edward Winslow wrote it, '_sachimo comaco_,'--the Sachem-house. _Werowocomoco_, _Weramocomoco_, &c. in Virginia, was the 'Werowance's house,' and the name appears on Smith's map, at a place "upon the river Pamauncke [now York River], where the great King [Powhatan] was resident."