canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
canyonwalker ([personal profile] canyonwalker) wrote in [personal profile] sorcyress 2025-06-24 04:20 am (UTC)

Even though I went to college in the Finger Lakes region I had to look up Keuka to see if it's a real lake or an artful misspelling of Cayuga Lake. It's real, and it turns out it's not even just a different phonetic spelling of the same native word. Keuka is the transliteration of a word meaning "lake shaped like a canoe" and Cayuga is the transliteration for "swamp people". Daaaamn the Seneca didn't like people from Lake Cayuga!

But that etymology also sheds new, validating light on the classic filk of Cornell University's fight song:

🎵 Far above Cayuga's waters
There's a stench I smell
Some blame Cayuga's waters
We know it's Cornell. 🎵



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