The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #46571   Message #692412
Posted By: SharonA
17-Apr-02 - 07:01 PM
Thread Name: Eternal Questions
Subject: RE: Eternal Questions
Celtic Soul: Now there's an Eternal Question – how do you spell "Chogagogmanchogagogchabunagungamog"?

On this page, it's got a similar spelling, "Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg." There's also a map of the lake of the same name: http://tompayne.dsl.speakeasy.net/tompayne/sigep/lake.htm

This site, with a photo of said lake, says the word was coined by the Nipmucks, but it inserts an extra "gag" (or is it "gog"?) into the name: http://www.net1plus.com/users/websterpd/webster_lake.htm

This blurb says that the word is from the Algonquin (is that the same as Nipmuck? or was one a tribe and the other a clan of that tribe?): http://www.roadtripamerica.com/signs/chargogg.htm

Some of these sites refer to the lake in question as being currently named Lake Webster, but this site says it's locally known as Lake Manchaug: http://www.mchs.net/MCHSLIB/HTML/didknow4.html

And finally, an answer to what I thought would be another Eternal Question, "What is the proper term for a word like Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (besides 'long')?" It's called a hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian, according to this site: http://jewel.morgan.edu/~salimian/humor/humor_203.html