MAGIC WORDS
"As the word Abraham means the father of a great multitude of
men," wrote Herman Melville, "so the word Mississippi means the father of
a great multitude of waters. His tribes stream in from east and west, exceedingly
fruitful the lands they enrich."28
Meanings:
At what point in its course does the Mississippi become what
the Mississippi means?
-- T.S. Eliot
• Big river
-- Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner (2004)
• Father of waters
"The river was dubbed 'the father of waters' by early French explorers in
the 1700s, apparently [having] misinterpreted the Algonquin name for it
meaning 'big river.'" -- Jerry R. Rogers (Ed.), Water Resources and Environmental
History (2004)
• Gathering of waters
• River in the United States, one of the longest waterways in the world
• State in the southern region of the United States
"As one woman declared at a meeting of the Afro-American Genealogical
and Historical Society of Chicago: 'When you say Mississippi, it's a magic
word for black Chicagoans. It means memories, good and bad.'"29
Origins: Mississippi is generally believed to have originated from the Ojibwe
(Chippewa) Indian words "mici zibi" meaning "great river" or "gathering in
of all the waters" and the Algonquin word "Messipi." 0 "A great many scholars
of our Indian languages have tried their hand at the word Mississippi; but
the most of them are wrong," said Peter Vieau in 1889. "I used to be told
that it is a Menomonee word, mashchechepee (the great river)." 1
Facts: The word Mississippi is commonly used as a "countdown spacer"
to accurately count down seconds: "One -- Mississippi, two -- Mississippi,
three -- Mississippi" and so on.
"Mississippi . . . is beloved by every young child for the very way it
trips off the tongue as they spell all those repeated letters."
28 "The River," a fragment appearing in the Norton Critical Edition (1971) of The
Confidence Man (1875)
29 Michael Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory (1991)
0 Mississippi.gov (2005)
1 transcribed by Reuben Thwaites, "Narrative of Peter Vieau," Wisconsin Histori-
cal Collections (1900)
2 Susan Ohanian, Day by Day Activity Book (1997)