The Composition of Indian Geographical Names | Page 6

Narr. nip; Muhh. nup; Abn. and Chip. nebi; Del. m'bi;) and its diminutives, nippisse and nips, were employed in compound names to denote WATER, generally, without characterizing it as 'swift flowing,' 'wave moved,' 'tidal,' or 'standing:' as, for example, in the name of a part of a river, where the stream widening with diminished current becomes lake-like, or of a stretch of tide-water inland, forming a bay or cove at a river's mouth. By the northern Algonkins, it appears to have been used for 'lake,' as in the name of Missi-nippi or Missinabe lake ('great water'), and in that of Lake Nippissing, which has the locative affix, nippis-ing, 'at the small lake' north-east of the greater Lake Huron, which gave a name to the nation of 'Nipissings,' or as the French called them, 'Nipissiriniens,'--according to Charlevoix, the true Algonkins.
Quinnipiac, regarded as the Indian name of New Haven,--also written Quinnypiock, Quinopiocke, Quillipiack, &c., and by President Stiles[25] (on the authority of an Indian of East Haven) Quinnepyooghq,--is, probably, 'long water place,' quinni-nippe-ohke, or quin-nipi-ohke. Kennebec would seem to be another form of the same name, from the Abnaki, k[oo]n��-be-ki, were it not that Rale wrote,[26] as the name of the river, 'Aghenib��kki'--suggesting a different adjectival. But Biard, in the Relation de la Nouvelle-France of 1611, has 'Kinibequi,' Champlain, Quinebequy, and Vimont, in 1640, 'Quinibequi,' so that we are justified in regarding the name as the probable equivalent of Quinni-pi-ohke.
[Footnote 25: Ms. Itinerary. He was careful to preserve the Indian pronunciation of local names, and the form in which he gives this name convinces me that it is not, as I formerly supposed, the quinnuppohke (or quinuppeohke) of Eliot,--meaning 'the surrounding country' or the 'land all about' the site of New Haven.]
[Footnote 26: Dictionary, s.v. 'Noms.']
Win-nippe-sauki (Winnipiseogee) will be noticed hereafter.
4. -PAUG, -POG, -BOG, (Abn. -b��ga or -b��gat; Del. -p��cat;) an inseparable generic, denoting 'WATER AT REST,' 'standing water,' is the substantival component of names of small lakes and ponds, throughout New England.[27] Some of the most common of these names are,--
[Footnote 27: Paug is regularly formed from pe (Abn. bi), the base of nippe, and may be translated more exactly by 'where water is' or 'place of water.']
Massa-paug, 'great pond,'--which appears in a great variety of modern forms, as Mashapaug, Mashpaug, Massapogue, Massapog, &c. A pond in Cranston, near Providence, R.I.; another in Warwick, in the same State; 'Alexander's Lake,' in Killingly; 'Gardiner's Lake,' in Salem, Bozrah and Montville; 'Tyler Pond,' in Goshen; ponds in Sharon, Groton, and Lunenburg, Mass., were each of them the 'Massapaug' or 'great pond' of its vicinity.
Quinni-paug, 'long pond.' One in Killingly, gave a name to Quinebaug River and the 'Quinebaug country.' Endicott, in 1651, wrote this name 'Qunnubb��gge' (3 Mass. Hist. Coll., iv. 191). "Quinepoxet," the name of a pond and small river in Princeton, Mass., appears to be a corruption of the diminutive with the locative affix; Quinni-paug-es-it, 'at the little long pond.'
Wongun-paug, 'crooked (or bent) pond.' There is one of the name in Coventry, Conn. Written, 'Wangunbog,' 'Wungumbaug,' &c.
Petuhkqui-paug, 'round pond,' now called 'Dumpling Pond,' in Greenwich, Conn., gave a name to a plain and brook in that town, and, occasionally, to the plantation settled there, sometimes written 'Petuckquapock.'
Nunni-paug, 'fresh pond.' One in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, gave a name (Nunnepoag) to an Indian village near it. Eliot wrote nunnipog, for 'fresh water,' in James iii. 12.
Sonki-paug or so[n]ki-paug, 'cool pond.' (Sonkipog, 'cold water,' Eliot.) Egunk-sonkipaug, or 'the cool pond (spring) of Egunk' hill in Sterling, Conn., is named in Chandler's Survey of the Mohegan country, as one of the east bounds.
Pahke-paug, 'clear pond' or 'pure water pond.' This name occurs in various forms, as 'Pahcupog,' a pond near Westerly, R.I.;[28] 'Pauquepaug,' transferred from a pond to a brook in Kent and New Milford; 'Paquabaug,' near Shepaug River, in Roxbury, &c. 'Pequabuck' river, in Bristol and Farmington, appears to derive its name from some 'clear pond,'--perhaps the one between Bristol and Plymouth.
[Footnote 28: A bound of Human Garret's land, one mile north-easterly from Ninigret's old Fort. See Conn. Col. Records, ii. 314.]
Another noun-generic that denotes 'lake' or 'fresh water at rest,' is found in many Abnaki, northern Algonkin and Chippewa names, but not, perhaps, in Massachusetts or Connecticut. This is the Algonkin -g[)a]mi, -g[)o]mi, or -gummee. Kitchi-gami or 'Kechegummee,' the Chippewa name of Lake Superior, is 'the greatest, or chief lake.' Caucomgomoc, in Maine, is the Abn. ka?kou-gami-k, 'at Big-Gull lake.' Temi-gami, 'deep lake,' discharges its waters into Ottawa River, in Canada; Kinou-gami, now Kenocami, 'long lake,' into the Saguenay, at Chicoutimi.
There is a Mitchi-gami or (as sometimes written) machi-gummi, 'large lake,' in northern Wisconsin, and the river which flows from it has received the same name, with the locative suffix, 'Machig[=a]mig' (for mitchi-gaming). A branch of this river is now called 'Fence River'