272 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



meaning to BEND, or apprear around a point (Rand, English- Micmac Dictionary, 34 

 199), this significance fitting far better with the other elements in the word than the 

 root meaning "runs out." The final K is of course simply the universal locative 

 termination giving the word the significance of PLACE. Hence the entire word 

 would be EPETK-KUTOG-OYE-K, meaning literally BACK TURN-AROUND- 

 BENDS-PLACE, which meaning is in substantial agreement with that given by 

 Rand, as noted above. This full form of the Indian word, involving some dupli- 

 cation of sounds, was condensed by them to a form which we may write as PET-KOOT- 

 KOY-EK'. 



If, now, we inquire as to the fitness of such a name to this River, it is not far to 

 seek. The most striking characteristic of the Petitcodiac River, and one that dif- 

 ferentiates it from all others in this region, is the remarkable direction of its flow. 

 Thus, to one entering it from Chignecto Bay, an extension of the Bay of Fundy (and 

 all of the place-nomenclature of our Acadian Indians is applied with reference to 

 entering or ascending rivers and other watercourses), the course of the river is found 

 to swing from southwest around to the north, northwest, west and finally southwest, 

 thus bringing it parallel again, and in reverse to its entrance; and I have no question 

 that it is this great reverse turn in its course that the name describes. Curiously 

 enough, however, this great reverse bend in the main course of the Petitcodiac is not 

 the only feature of this kind it exhibits, for, in the upper part of its course, while its 

 main direction is continued by a smaller stream, the Anagance, the main river itself, 

 at the present village of Petitcodiac, swings around to the northwest, north, and north- 

 east in another but smaller bow, until it takes a northeasterly direction, in reverse 

 of its direction below, and this new direction it keeps to its source. Indeed this bend 

 also is sufficiently remarkable to give the name to the river. In view of this doubly 

 striking feature, probably unique among Acadian rivers, that the river has thus two 

 bows or bends in reverse of one another, giving the whole a flat S form, I have tried 

 to find in the Indian roots of the name some recognition of this double bend, but with- 

 out success, though I suspect it may be there, and demonstrable by some better 

 philologist than I am. Possibly it is such an element which underlies the meaning 

 VERY CROOKED, given by some Indians, as noted above. 



Other Explanations of the Name. — Of these I have found but one, — that 

 already mentioned as given by Gesner, who, in his New Brunswick, 137, says that 

 the right angled turn in the River, called The Bend (at the present City of Monc- 

 ton), was "named by the French, Petit Coude (Little Elbow), whence is derived 

 Peticodiac, frequently called by the inhabitants Pettycoatjack." This statement, 

 which may express Gesner's own theory as to the second part of the word (though 

 the explanation of the first part is much older, as noted above), has been widely copied 

 into both local and general works, and is commonly accepted as expressing the cor- 

 rect origin of the word. But it is absolutely erroneous as shown by four lines of 

 evidence; — First, the history of the word in conjunction with its present use by the 

 Micmacs all goes to prove an Indian, not a French, origin: Second, this Bend is by no 

 means a little elbow, but a great one, the river here approaching a mile in width, 

 making the designation wholly unsuitable: Third, a derivation of the second part of 

 the word from COUDE ignores and leaves quite unexplained the presence of the 

 termination IAC, for COUDE not CODIAC is the French for ELBOW: Fourth, 

 never once in all of the many documents remaining to us from the French period, does 

 any trace of either the PETIT or the COUDE appear, as they must necessarily have 

 done had the word been French in origin. This name in fact is only one of several 

 in these Provinces which are popularly explained as French, though in every case we 

 know positively that they are Indian, and in every case, also, not a sign of a French 



