Memphremagog

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large freshwater lake that stretches across the border between northern Vermont in the United States and the Eastern Townships of Quebec
2. A long, deep lake in northeastern North America whose waters spread across the boundary between Vermont and southern Quebec
3. The elongated body of fresh water in the Northeast that lies partly in the American state of Vermont and partly in Canada's Quebec

Etymology: Memphremagog is a proper noun, the name of a lake straddling the Vermont–Quebec border, and its name comes from the Abenaki language, the Indigenous people of the region. The commonly cited meaning is "big water" or "large body of water," though the exact analysis of the name is debated among scholars of Algonquian languages, and the precise spelling and pronunciation have shifted over time as European settlers recorded it in different forms. Early French and English writers rendered the name in a variety of spellings, and the modern form became standard only gradually. Such spelling variation was typical of place names recorded by people who did not share a writing system with the speakers of the original language, and the lake's name is a good example of how an Indigenous word survives in maps while its details blur.