Pequannock

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small township in northern New Jersey, along with the river that flows through the area, named after a local Lenape place name
2. The name of a New Jersey township and the waterway running near it, drawn from an indigenous Lenape word
3. A place in northern New Jersey, including both a town and a nearby river that take their name from Lenape origins

Etymology: Pequannock is a place name rather than a common word. It belongs to the Algonquian languages of the Lenape people of the New Jersey region, and it names a river in Morris County and the township that took its name from that river. The name was in use for these places long before English-speaking settlers wrote it down, and it reached English through the spellings those settlers recorded, which vary in older documents. Its meaning is uncertain. The explanation most often offered connects the name to Lenape words for deep water or a deep place, which would suit a river valley, but no source confirms this with certainty, so it should be taken as a likely reading rather than a settled one.