Re: Q: The Meaning of "Brokeback"

"qquito" <qquito@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> I am wondering the meaning of the word "brokeback". It is just a
> meaningless name of a place? Or is it derived from the verb "break"
> and "back" (the behind of the human torso) implying some difficult
> situation, such as the mountain being difficult to climb? If the
> latter, why not "Breaking-Back Mountain", or "Back-Breaking
> Mountain"? Why the past of "break" ?

I presume it's a fictitious mountain, so we may all speculate as we
please. My own take on it is that "broke" is dialect for "broken",
and the mountain looked to its namer as if it had a broken back, or
looked like an animal that had a broken back; or perhaps the mountain
was named after an incident in which someone's back got broken.
Stewart, in _American Place-Names_, has a Broke Leg Creek in Kentucky,
and a Broken Mountain in Alaska.
--
--- Joe Fineman joe_f@xxxxxxxxxxx

||: The evil of most days is more than sufficient thereunto. :||
.

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