THE WORD CARIBOU* 



Studies relating to the historical origin of words may 

 be quite as interesting and oftentimes more profitable than 

 monographic reviews dealing in wearisome detail with the 

 phyletic development of some organism concerning which 

 the most of us know little and care less. Very recently 

 in reading the journal of that intrepid explorer, Sir Alex- 

 ander Mackenzie, describing a canoe voyage from Lake 

 Athabasca to the Arctic Ocean down the great river now 

 bearing his name^ I was impressed by a paragraph and the 

 possible significance it might have in throwing light upon 

 the origin of the word "caribou." This is perfunctorily 

 recorded in various dictionaries as being either of French 

 Canadian- or of Indian^ origin without further comment, 

 although some editions of Webster state that it is derived 

 from the Indian word meaning "pawer" without noting 

 the specific word. 



Mackenzie, while making the trip in 1787, writes in his 

 journal as follows (p. 209) : "We saw some rein-deer on 

 one of the islands (Great Slave Lake) and our hunters 

 killed five and two smaller ones . . . This island was ac- 

 cordingly named Isle de Carreboeuf." While it is not clear 

 from the context as to the size a reindeer must attain be- 

 fore possessing a numerical value, the implication that 

 "caribou" is derived from carre signifying four, and boeuf 

 indicating bovine or ox, is fully apparent and seems to 

 have escaped the attention of lexicographers. In the 

 reindeer horns are possessed by both sexes and the number 

 four may well refer to the fact that each horn has a large 

 horizontal as well as perpendicular prong, so that there 



^"Voyages from Montreal through the Countries of North America," London, 

 1801, Allerton edition. 



^Webster's Dictionary — some editions; Standard Dictionary; Lettre, Dictionnaire 

 Langue Frangais. 



^Murray, New English Dictionary; Webster's Dictionary; Century Dictionary; 

 Hatzfeld, Dictionnaire Langue Frangais. 



■•Reprinted from Science, vol. 68 (1928), pp. 352-353. 



