Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1883 — Origin of the Word Mississippi. [ARTICLE]

Origin of the Word Mississippi.

The Mississippi is a good instance of the variations through which some names have passed. Its original spelling, and the nearest approach to the Algonquin word, “the father of waters,” is Meche Sebe, a spelling still commonly used by the Louisiana Creoles. Tonti suggested Miche Sebfe, which is somewhat nearer to the present spelling. Father Laval still further modernized it into Michispi, which another father, Labatt, softened into Misispi, the first specimen of the present spelling. The only changes since have been to overload the word with consonants. Marquette added the first and some other explorer the second “s,” making it Mississipi, and so it remains in France to this day, with only one ‘ip.” The man who added the other has flever been discovered, but he must have Ween an American, for at the time of the purchase of Louisiana the name was generally spelled in the colony with a single “p.”— Magazine of American History. A fashion paper says “waists are to be full.” [Especially after dinner.]