3. Informal. GRAVEYARD OF THE PACIFIC: Nautical nickname for the stretch of tumultuous coastline reaching from Tillamook Bay to Cape Scott on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Origin:

1773. From grave + yard. “Grave” enters around 1250, from the pre-1000 Old English, grœf; cognate with the Old Frisian gref, both of which held the same meaning. Before 1325, “yard” developed from the Old English, geard, along with the Old Saxon, gard. Related to GARDEN—v. to enclose in a yard. GRAVEYARD OF THE PACIFIC is believed to have entered the lexicon in the earliest days of the maritime fur trade, around 1800.

Crimp

1. transitive verb to bend, twist, or pinch; to make wavy

2. noun something produced by the act of crimping, such as artificially wavy hair or a sealed pie crust or pastry

3. noun a person who coerces or entraps sailors, soldiers, seamen, etc., into shipping or enlisting, usually by force and for monetary gain

Origin:

v. 1698. Before 1398, crympen, to be drawn together; possible origin from the Old English, gecrympan, to curl, shrink, but generally agreed upon to have been reintroduced from the Dutch or Low German, krimpen, meaning the same thing. –n. 1863, American English referring to a natural curl in wood grain, from the verb. –n. 1758, British slang, originally meaning “agent,” that picked up negative connotation as it began to refer exclusively to those who acted as middlemen to provide sailors for ships using nefarious and/or quasi-legal means.

The Gut

noun

1. informal the belly, stomach or abdomen

2. slang the main artery or drag of a town, such as Broadway in Seaside or Commercial Street in Astoria; often used with a verb to describe circling a downtown strip in an automobile for recreation and socializing, i.e., SHOOT THE GUT

Origin:

Probably before 1300, gutte, meaning intestine, developed from the Old English, guttas, before 1000. Enters street racing culture by way of the U.S. teenager during the hot rod fad of the 1950s and 1960s.

Devil

noun

1. the principle antagonist of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The fallen angel, Lucifer; Satan; the ruler of Hell

2. any evil spirit; demon

3. a most wicked or mischievous man: a fiend

4. DEVIL’S CAULDRON: a small, volatile cove snaked between two sheer cliffs, known for its churning waters and located at Oswald West State Park between Cannon Beach and Manzanita, right off of U.S. Highway 101

Origin:

Before 1295, devel. From the Greek New Testament, diábolos, a loan translation of Hebrew satan in the Old Testament (Tanakh). Enters Old English as deoful (about 725, Beowulf), meaning an evil spirit, by way of the Late Latin, diabolus, which arose from the Greek.

Manzanita

noun

1. any purple-budding, evergreen shrub of the Arctostaphylos genus, native to western North America

2. A small, platted coastal city in northern Tillamook County, located due west of U.S. Highway 101. Originally subdivided in 1912, the population is 598 according to the census of 2010

Origin:

1846. From the Spanish, manzana, plus the diminutive suffix, -ita, meaning “small apple.” Manzana arrives to Spanish through the Vulgar Latin, mattiana, from mazana.

Chinook

noun

1. name for a group of Northwest Coast Indian peoples living at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington state; CHINOOK NATION is actually comprised of many groups, including the Kathlamet, Clatsop, Lower Chinook, Wahkaikum and Willapa tribes

2. a language of the Chinook and other nearby peoples

3. CHINOOK JARGON: a pidgin or trade language mashing native (Chinook and Nootka), French and English words that arose in the 19th century; formerly the lingua franca of the Pacific Northwest

4. CHINOOK WIND: a wet spring wind that blows warm air inland off the coast of Oregon from the southwest (also simply called CHINOOKS)

5. a town in Pacific County, Wash., situated on the north lip of the mouth of the Columbia, population 466 in the 2010 census

6. not capitalized, CHINOOK SALMON: the largest species of Pacific salmon

Origin:

1795. From the Salishan, cinúk, the Lower Chehalis name for a summer village site located on Baker Bay. The spelling and pronunciation that is now agreed upon emerged from use of the trade language that houses its namesake.

Oyster

noun

1. any various edible, bivalve mollusks of the family Ostreidae that bed in shallow marine water and are characterized by having a rough, irregular-shaped shell closed with a single muscle

2. an edible bit of dark muscle that resembles the shucked mollusk and is located on either side of the backbone of a whole fowl

3. Oysterville, Wash.: An unincorporated community in Pacific County, Wash., located on Willapa Bay and first founded in 1841

Origin:

1321. Enters Middle English borrowed from the Old French, oistre, from the Latin, ostrea, originating with the Greek, óstreon, which referred to the mollusk and was related to both óstrakon, meaning “hard shell,” and ostéon, meaning “bone.”

Cranberry

noun

1. a small, ruby-red, acidic berry used in cooking or the heath plant from which it grows. Cranberries are boiled down into sauces and jellies, smashed and strained into drinks, or heated through in baked goods

Origin:

1647. American English, most likely borrowed from the Low German, kraanbere; kraan meaning “crane” and bere meaning “berry.”

Moosmoos

noun

1. buffalo or cattle

2. MOOSMOOS CREEK: a stream about eight miles south of Astoria, near Olney, that flows into Youngs River north of Youngs River Falls

Origin:

Moo: 1549. Of imitative origin, replicating the sound of a cow. Moosmoos: The Chinook Jargon word for “cattle,” it arrived to the trade language by way of a corruption of Moos-moos-chin, the Walla-Walla word for “buffalo.”

Neahkahnie

noun

1. a headland mountain, north of Manzanita, accessible by U.S. Hwy 101 in Oswald West State Park. The 1,631 foot peak is part of the Oregon Coast Range and is probably best known for its surviving lore of buried treasure hidden by early Spanish explorers. While many odd artifacts have been recovered from the mountain over the years, the roughly 5-mile loop trail offers the non-treasure seeker impressive vistas of the ocean and nearby Manzanita and Nehalem Bay

Origin:

From the Tillamook. Various spellings have emerged and gone obsolete through the years, though this official spelling is first recorded in 1856 by a U.S. Coast surveyor. While there is some controversy about how the name originated, it is generally agreed upon that Neah-kah-nie means, in some variation, “place of the gods,” utilizing the prefix, ne-, meaning “place,” with a corruption of the Clatsop word, Acarna, the name of a chief deity.

Boatswain

noun

1. a petty officer on a mercantile vessel or a naval officer on a warship in charge of sails, rigging and all other work on deck

Origin:

First introduced in 1304 as botswayn, the current spelling and pronunciation arrived around 1450. From the late Old English, batswegen — joining the Old English, bat, meaning “boat,” with swegen, meaning “boy, attendant or servant,” which arrives by way of various Scandinavian sources all meaning the same thing: the Old Icelandic, sveinn, the Danish, svenn, and the Swedish, sven.

Yule

noun, often capitalized

1. archaic: Christmas; the celebration of the nativity of Jesus Christ

2. an anachronistic, Germanic pagan feast celebrating the winter solstice from which many Northern European Christmas traditions arise

3. yuletide: the Christmas season

4. yule log: a large piece of firewood burned during Christmas celebrations

Origin:

First introduced around 1200 as yole, later yoole. Developed from the Old English, geol (before 899), cognate with the Danish and Swedish, jul, and the Icelandic, iol or jol, probably all arriving from a common Scandinavian root, most likely the Old Icelandic, jol, a heathen feast lasting 12 days. Yuletide is first recorded about 1475.

Cheer

noun, intransitive and transitive verb

1. a celebratory shout of encouragement or praise; applause, or the act of doing so

2. a short, often repetitive chant or song devised by fans or a cheerleading squad to encourage a sports team

3. festive food and drink

4. a light feeling, mood or attitude; happiness or gladness

5. archaic: a facial expression

6. obsolete: face

7. cheers: pl., to raise a glass in appreciation

Origin:

Before 1200 as chere, meaning “face, or an expression or mood shown on the face.” The term came to mean “gladness” before 1393. Borrowed outright from the Old French, chere, “face,” from the Late Latin cara meaning the same thing, which arrives from the Greek, kára, meaning “head.” Cheers is first noted in 1919 having derived from the earlier definition, “a shout of encouragement” around 1720.

Potash

noun

1. any number of chemical compounds containing potassium, most commonly leached from spent wood ash, and often employed in the creation of fertilizers and soap

Origin:

Current form is first recorded in English in 1751 following the introduction of “pot ash” in 1648, which was borrowed as a loan translation of the obsolete Dutch, potaschen; all refer to the initial process of obtaining the substance through the means of evaporating an ashen solution in a cast iron pot.

Douglas fir

noun

1. Pseudotsuga menziesii: Of a genus including six species reaching as far as eastern Asia, this tall, slender evergreen conifer is the only one native to western North America. One of the most popular commercial timber resources, an individual tree can reach the average age of 500 years. While not a true fir tree, which is signified by the hyphenation in its common name, it has also been called the Oregon pine, the Douglas spruce, the Washington fir and more

Origin:

The common name came about in the mid-19th century and is attributed to the Scottish botanist David Douglas, who wrote about the trees in his journal in 1825. The Latin genus, Pseudotsuga, literally means “false hemlock,” while the epithet, menziesii, honors Archibald Menzies, another Scotsman, surgeon and rival botanist to Douglas, who first recorded the species in 1791 while on Vancouver Island during an expedition with Capt. Vancouver.

Tongue

noun

1. Anatomy. A muscular organ in the mouth responsible for taste, smell (in some creatures like snakes) and (in humans) the articulation of speech

2. a language or way of speaking

3. Tongue Point. A wooded peninsula jutting nearly a mile into the Columbia River on the east end of Astoria. Tongue Point has been home to a mill, a U.S. Naval Air Base and a U.S. Coast Guard Station among other things and in 1965 became one of the nation’s first Job Corps sites, which is still in use today

Origin:

Before 899, developed as tunge in the Old English as a cognate with the Old Frisian, tunge, and the Old Saxon, tunga, all meaning the organ of speech, or language. From the Old High German, zanga. Tongue Point was named “Point William” by Lewis and Clark when they camped there in 1805, but it has retained its previous name first given by one Lt. William Broughton of the George Vancouver Expedition in 1792.

Tote

verb

1. to carry, lug or haul, often something heavy

noun

1. Tote bag: a large bag with a handle carried by hand or over the shoulder

2. Fishing: a container of any size and material — wood, plastic, metal or fiber — used to hold today’s catch on ice. Also used in the commercial transport of frozen fish in lieu of the cost of boxing the individual products

Origin:

First introduced as a verb in 1677. Of unknown origin. A longstanding myth that “tote” was introduced in the 17th century from a West African language through the African slave trade by way of Virginia has been debunked by the Oxford English Dictionary for lack of evidence (See the Kikongo, tota, meaning pick up, the Kimbundu, tuta, meaning carry or the Swahili, tuta, to pile up). Tote bag first appears at the turn of the 20th century, following the word’s first appearance as a noun in 1884.

Stavebolt

noun

1. a log or section of log to be cut into staves

2. Stavebolt Landing: a landing about eight miles south of Astoria and a half-mile from where Stavebolt Creek empties into the Lewis and Clark River

3. Stavebolt Creek: a stream that begins approximately 6.8 miles north of Seaside running through Lewis and Clark territory

Origin:

Before 1398, staves as a plural of STAFF. Possibly related to the Old English stafas, referring to the rungs on a ladder (first recorded around 1175). The singular stave is a back formation from the plural first recorded in 1750. Stavebolt Landing is where logs were dumped to flow into the Lewis and Clark River before being floated to the mills. According to Lewis A. McArthur, the name of the landing and creek have been in use for many generations.

Ilwaco

noun

1. a city in southwestern Washington, opening onto Baker Bay on the Long Beach Peninsula; formerly the site of a large Chinook village, modern-day Ilwaco was first established in 1848 by Capt. James Johnson, platted by J.D. Holman in 1872 and incorporated in 1890. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population was 936

Origin:

Lacking an official spelling, the town was named in honor of Elowahka Jim, J.D. Holman’s Chinook neighbor and the son-in-law of Chief Comcomly, who married one of Comcomly’s daughters, Elowahka, and was commonly known by her name. Prior to the official establishment of a post office in 1876, the town was also known as Unity during the Civil War era.