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This file is an excerpt from the September 1997 version of Mark Israel's AUE FAQ.
The file was re-generated Sunday 3 December 2000 09:39 GMT with URLs updated where necessary and if possible.
To see the full AUE FAQ, click here. 
"Eskimo"
--------

   It now seems unlikely that "Eskimo" means "eater of raw meat".
Merriam-Webster changed its etymology when it brought out MWCD10,
and referred me to an article by Ives Goddard in _Handbook of
North American Indians_ (Smithsonian, 1984), vol. 5, p. 5-7.
Goddard cites the following Amerindian words:

Montagnais _ayassimew_="Micmac"
Plains Cree _ayaskimew_="Eskimo"
Attikamek Cree _ashkimew_="Eskimo"
North Shore Montagnais _kachikushu_ or _kachekweshu_="Eskimo"
   "not analysable but explained by speakers as meaning 'eater of
   raw meat'"
Ojibwa _eshkipot_="Eskimo" (literally "one who who eats raw")
Algonquin Eastern Ojibwa _ashkipok_="Eskimo" (literally "raw
   eaters")

   Goddard writes:  "In spite of the tenacity of the belief, both
among Algonquian speakers and in the anthropological and general
literature [...] that Eskimo means 'raw-meat eaters', this
explanation fits only the cited Ojibwa forms (containing Proto-
Algonquian *_ashk-_ 'raw' and *_po-_ 'eat') and cannot be correct
for the presumed Montagnais source of the word Eskimo itself. [...]
The Montagnais word _awassimew_ (of which _ay-_ is a reduplication)
and its unreduplicated Attikamek cognate exactly match Montagnais
_assimew_, Ojibwa _ashkime_ 'she nets a snowshoe', and an origin
from a form meaning 'snowshoe-netter' could be considered if the
original Montagnais application (presumably before Montagnais
contact with Eskimos) were to Algonquians."

   _A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language_ by Bishop Frederic Baraga
(Beauchemin & Valois, 1878) gives _ashkime_="I lace or fill
snowshoes"; the phrase _agim nind ashkima_ with the same meaning
(_agim_ is the noun for "snowshoe"); _askimaneiab_="babiche, strings
of leather for lacing snowshoes"; and _ashkimewin_="art or
occupation of lacing snowshoes".  But there are no other obvious
cognates:  the words for "snowshoe", "lace", "leather", "net", and
"string" are all unrelated.  In all other words beginning with
"ashk-" or "oshk-", the prefix signifies "raw, fresh, new".

   Eskimos' self-designations include:

     singular  plural     language      places

     Inuk      Inuit      Inuktitut     Canada, West Greenland
     Inupiaq   Inupiat    Inupiaq       North Alaska
     Inuvialuk Inuvialuit               Mackenzie Delta
               Katladlit  Kalaallisut   Greenland
     Yupik                Yupik         Southwest Alaska
     Yuk       Yuit                     Siberia, St. Lawrence Island

"Inuk" and "Yuk" mean simply "person"; "Inupiaq" and "Inuvialuk" mean
"real, genuine person".

   Goddard writes:  "In the 1970s in Canada the name Inuit all but
replaced Eskimo in governmental and scientific publication and the
mass media, largely in response to demands from Eskimo political
associations.  The erroneous belief that Eskimo was a pejorative
term meaning 'eater of raw flesh' had a major influence on this
shift.  The Inuit Circumpolar Conference meeting in Barrow, Alaska,
in 1977 officially adopted Inuit as a designation for all Eskimos,
regardless of their local usages [...]."

   For the the number of words the Eskimos supposedly have for snow,
see the sci.lang FAQ, or the alt.folklore.urban archive under
<http://www.urbanlegends.com>.