How "Wazhazhe" became "Osage"
SnakIndigenous Peoples
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1Muscogulus
Another LT thread (here) made me think about how a certain North American Indian tribe came to be called "Osage" in English.
When French explorers first encountered this native people, they probably heard them call themselves Wazhazhe (or Wažaže). They wrote it down in French as "Ouasage." English speakers would probably have rendered it "Wasosh" or "Washoshee."
Later, English speakers took over the French spelling "Ouasage," simplified it to "Osage," and sounded it out englishly. They also stressed the first syllable, because that's what English speakers often do with unfamiliar words.
So now the tribe's name in English is pronounced as if one were beginning a speech to a small evergreen perennial: "Oh! sage."
In some contexts the name has deteriorated even further. I've heard a Kentucky gardener call the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) an "old sage orange."
When French explorers first encountered this native people, they probably heard them call themselves Wazhazhe (or Wažaže). They wrote it down in French as "Ouasage." English speakers would probably have rendered it "Wasosh" or "Washoshee."
Later, English speakers took over the French spelling "Ouasage," simplified it to "Osage," and sounded it out englishly. They also stressed the first syllable, because that's what English speakers often do with unfamiliar words.
So now the tribe's name in English is pronounced as if one were beginning a speech to a small evergreen perennial: "Oh! sage."
In some contexts the name has deteriorated even further. I've heard a Kentucky gardener call the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) an "old sage orange."
