wishtonwish
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From a Native American word which was an onomatopoeic representation of the animals' cry.[1]
Noun[edit]
wishtonwish (plural wishtonwishes)
- (US, obsolete, except perhaps in dialects) The prairie dog.
- 1812 April, “Pike's Expedition”, in The General Repository and Review, volume 1, page 398:
- On the twenty fourth of October, while on a short excursion from this place, Lt. Pike and Dr. Robertson, (a gentleman who accompanied the expedition,) killed some prairie squirrels, or wishtonwishes, and nine rattle snakes, […]
- 1937, James Thurber, Let Your Mind Alone, page 189:
- […] who, it turned out, devoted all his spending money to them, asked me if I had ever seen a "wishtonwish."
References[edit]
- “wishtonwish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- ^ 1910, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, edited by Frederick Webb Hodge, part 2, page 965