Etymology

chunkey

C3H4U1N1K5E1Y4

Today it means: A sport or game played by the Cherokee and other Native Americans in the Carolinas, which involved rolling stone disks across the ground and throwing spears at them in an attempt to land the spear as close to the stopped stone as possible. Full definition →

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The story

From the undocumented language(s) (potentially Sioux-Catawban) of the Shoccoree–Eno–Adshusheer peoples of north-central North Carolina (roughly corresponding to the Research Triangle and the Piedmont Triad regions). The earliest attestation is as “chenco” in John Lawson’s 1709 travelogue.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.