Grand Tetons

[Dr. Goodword]

They look like a saw to me. Remember, I'm talking about an English word spelled with a lower case "S". That's right--the Grand Tetons form a sierra. Wonder if the Sierra Nevada forms a teton? Nope, teton is a Dakota word meaning "prairie-dwellers" used as a name of one of the Dakota tribes. The Grand Prairie-Dwellers? What's wrong here? Who picked this name?

[Slava]

Well, the way I've always heard it explained is the Tetons look like grand teats.

Here's some supporting information:

"As a volunteer for the University of Wisconsin's Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), I read a western trapper's diary from the 1930s. I was to make notes of any unusual usages or language patterns. My most interesting finding was that the trapper referred to a range of mountains as The Teats, a metaphor based on the similarity between the shapes of the mountains and women's breasts. Because today we use the French wording, The Grand Tetons, the metaphor isn't as obvious, but I wrote to mapmakers and found the following listings: Nippletop and Little Nipple Top near Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks; Nipple Mountain in Archuleta County, Colorado; Nipple Peak in Coke County, Texas; Nipple Butte in Pennington, South Dakota; Squaw Peak in Placer County, California (and many other locations); Maiden's Peak and Squaw Tit (they're the same mountain) in the Cascade Range in Oregon; Mary's Nipple near Salt Lake City, Utah; and Jane Russell Peaks near Stark, New Hampshire." (Alleen Pace Nilsen: Sexism in English)

I would provide the site reference, but it turns out it's part porn. If you must, use Yahoo to look up <Grand Tetons, etymology>. It's the first one.

etymonline.com specifically states that the Lakota Indian term is NOT related to the Grand Tetons.

[Stargzer]

See cross-post here for obtaining the French translation online.

[Dr. Goodword]

OK, OK, I did some hardcore research and here is the real low-down.

(1) The word teton in Teton County, Montana does, in fact, comes from the name of a subgroup of Lakhotas originally living in the area. The original word was thithuwa, the and [a] nasalized. It apparently is derived from thita, the nasalized, "plains" and probably meant "the people from the plains". That makes sense for the county.

(2) Gigo's explanation of the mountains makes more sense, however, and is absolutely true: They are the "Big Tits"! (I only visited France after I married, so my knowledge of French in this area is relatively shallow.) DARE's reporting, of course, is reliable but when it comes to Indian placenames, the ultimate source is Bill Bright's encyclopedic "Native American Placenames of the United States" and it agrees with DARE (probably got its info from DARE).

They'll never look the same again. Don't you just hate etymology sometimes?

[Perry]

Well, the way I've always heard it explained is the Tetons look like grand teats.

Here's some supporting information:

"As a volunteer for the University of Wisconsin's Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), I read a western trapper's diary from the 1930s. I was to make notes of any unusual usages or language patterns. My most interesting finding was that the trapper referred to a range of mountains as The Teats, a metaphor based on the similarity between the shapes of the mountains and women's breasts. Because today we use the French wording, The Grand Tetons, the metaphor isn't as obvious, but I wrote to mapmakers and found the following listings: Nippletop and Little Nipple Top near Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks; Nipple Mountain in Archuleta County, Colorado; Nipple Peak in Coke County, Texas; Nipple Butte in Pennington, South Dakota; Squaw Peak in Placer County, California (and many other locations); Maiden's Peak and Squaw Tit (they're the same mountain) in the Cascade Range in Oregon; Mary's Nipple near Salt Lake City, Utah; and Jane Russell Peaks near Stark, New Hampshire." (Alleen Pace Nilsen: Sexism in English)

I would provide the site reference, but it turns out it's part porn. If you must, use Yahoo to look up <Grand Tetons, etymology>. It's the first one.

etymonline.com specifically states that the Lakota Indian term is NOT related to the Grand Tetons.

Breasts, breasts everywhere, and not a drop to drink.

[skinem]

Having spent a long time in the Grand Tetons, and knowing what they were named for, I've often thought that the original explorers most have been away from women a looooooooooong time to have decided that's what they should have been named.