10 August 2021
(13 December 2022: Added note about the transcription of the Marquette map and references to the two McCafferty journal articles.)
Detail of a 1673 map by Jacques Marquette that identifies the territory of the Missouri people. This portion of the map contains the name ȣmissouri along the southern bank of what is now called the Des Moines River, near its confluence with the Mississippi River, in what is now northeastern Missouri.
The name Missouri, both a U.S. state and river, comes from the Miami-Illinois weemeehsoorita (one who has a canoe), an ethnonym for a Siouan people who once lived in what is now the northeastern portion of the state. The Miami word breaks down into wi- (third-person possessive marker) + -mihs- (wood) + -oor- (boat) + -i- (inanimate noun) + -t- (third-person animate transitive participle marker) -a- (third-person animate transitive participle ending).
The written name first appears as ȣmissouri on Jacques Marquette’s 1673 French map of the Mississippi. The < ȣ > is an < ou > ligature, a character used by early French missionaries to represent the / w / sound in Indigenous words.
The name appears in English by 1698, when it appears in a translation of Louis Hennepin’s 1697 Nouvelle Découverte d'un Très Grand Pays Situé dans l'Amérique. Hennepin had accompanied René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle on his 1679–80 expedition. In this translation, the Missouri people are referred to as Messorites:
We shook Hands, to seal these Promises; and after Prayers, imbark’d in our Canow the 8th of March, 1680. The Ice which came down from the North, gave us a great deal of trouble; but we were so careful, that our Canow receiv’d no hurt; and after six Hours rowing, we came to the River of a Nation call’d Osages, who live toward the Messorites. That River comes from the Westward, and seems as big as the Meschasipi; but the Water is so muddy, that ’tis almost impossible to drink of it.
The Issati, who inhabit toward the Source of the Meschasipi, come sometimes in their Excursions to the Place where I was then; and I understood afterwards from them, having learn’d their Language, that this River of the Osages and Messorites is form’d from several other Rivers, which spring from a Mountain about twelves Day’s Journey from its Mouth.
Later on, Hennepin’s translator writes:
We left the Akansas upon the 24th of April, having presented them with several little Toys, which they receiv’d with an extraordinary Joy; and during sixty Leagues, saw no Savage neither of the Nation of Chikacha, or Messorite, which made us believe that they were gone a Hunting with their Families, or else fled away for fear of the Savages of Tintonha, that is to say, inhabiting the Meadows, who are their irreconcileable Enemies.
This made our Voyage the more easie, for our Men landed several times to kill some Fowls and other Game, with which the Banks of the Meschasipi are plentifully stock’d; however, before we came to the Mouth of the River of the Illinois, we discover’d several Messorites, who came down all along the River; but as they had no Pyrogues with them, we cross’d to the other side; and to avoid any surprize during the Night, we made no Fire; and the reb y theSavages [sic] could not discover whereabout we were; for doubtless they would have murther’d us, thinking we were their Enemies.
The Missouri spelling is in place in English at the turn of the eighteenth century. From a 1703 translation of Louis Armond de Lahontan’s Nouveaux Voyages dans l’Amerique, which uses the name to refer both to the river and the people:
I took leave of ’em the next day, which was the 13th, and in four days time, by the help of the Current and our Oars, made the River of the Missouris. This done, we run up against the Stream of that River, which was at least as rapid as the Missisipi was at that time; and arriv’d on the 18th at the first Village of the Missouris, where I only stop’d to make the People some Presents that procur’d me a hundred Turkeys, with which that People are wonderfully well stock’d.
Sources:
Bright, William. Native American Placenames of the United States. Norman: U of Oklahoma Press, 2004.
Hennepin, Louis. A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America. London: M. Bentley, et al. 1698, 150–51, 168–69. Early English Books Online (EEBO). (There are two separate printings of this book from 1698, which are indistinguishable from their title pages. I am citing from the earlier printing, which has narrower and more pages and many more printer’s errors, as can be seen in the passage quoted. The OED errs in quoting from the later printing but citing the page numbers of the earlier.)
de Lahontan, Louis Armond. New Voyages to North-America, vol 1 of 2. London: H. Bonwicke, et al., 1703, 130. Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).
Marquette, Jacques. Map of the New Discovery Made by the Jesuit Fathers in 1672 and Continued by Father Jacques Marquette, from the Same Group, Accompanied by a Few Frenchmen in the Year 1673, Named “Manitounie.” 1673. National Library of France. Digital image from the Library of Congress, LCCN 2021668635.
McCafferty, Michael. Native American Place-Names of Indiana. Urbana: U of Illinois Press, 2008, 192n.
———. “On the Birthday and Etymology of the Placename Missouri.” Names, 51.2, June 2003, 111–25.
———. “Returning to Missouri.” Names, 60.2, June 2012, 105–06.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2002, modified June 2021, s.v. Missouri, n. and adj.
Image credit: Jacques Marquette, 1673. Original at the National Library of France. Digital image from the Library of Congress, LCCN 2021668635.