da Cuttyhunk... Really, Now ??? << Was: Pullman question >>

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Mr. Morrison's posting of a photo of the Pullman Cuttyhunk is interesting. 

But I must ask... Who, in his right mind, would use such a cumbersome, ungainly and inglorious word in naming something as high-style as a Pullman car? Yes, I know that Cuttyhunk is a tiny island off the coast of Massachusetts, and that etymologically the word is from the Indian language Wampanoag, an Algonquian dialect. But the word still sounds course and cumbersome and indeed even anti-mellifluous. "Hunk" and its compounds are just not elegant words that conjure favorable notions of a pleasant train ride in pleasant surroundings, and good night's sleep. When you hear someone called a "Hunk," what images come to your mind... ? Would you ever use "Hunk" in naming your daughter... SusieHunk, or SallyHunk? 

Had the word "Cuttyhunk" been a Virginia Indian word, all would make sense. But someone borrowed this word from a long, long way away. Who may have done that, I ask? 

But then, perhaps this poor Pullman car had the inglorious name "Cuttyhunk" hung upon it by its original owner, and the N&W just passed along the joke. 

Which raises the question: Who, in the N&W's food chain, controlled the choice of names for N&W Pullman cars? Do the records survive...? 

-- abram burnett, 
Dot & Dash Arbitrageur 

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