Etymology

chipmunk

chip·munk
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Today it means: Any of certain the small, striped rodents, all found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk, placed in the taxonomic subtribe Tamiina. Full definition →

Ojibwe ačitamo˙nˀ
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The story

  1. Ojibwe · borrowed fromačitamo˙nˀ“squirrels”
  2. English todaychipmunk

1832; alteration (influenced by chipping squirrel) of earlier chitmunk, from older Ojibwe ačitamo˙nˀ (“squirrels”) (modern ajidamoo), literally ‘those who descend headlong’, from ačit- (“headfirst, face-down”) (compare modern ajijibizo (“he falls headfirst”), ajidagoojin (“he hangs upside down”)). The English verb developed due to the high-pitched voices of the American puppet and cartoon chipmunks in the group Alvin and the Chipmunks, who later starred in a popular children's TV show in the 1980s.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.