****** is "skookum?"
- Thread starter nitro_rat
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Hopeless Diamond
Explorer
Skookum - Wikipedia
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nitro_rat
Lunchbox Lockers
I guess? I live in Texas but my dad and brother live in Seattle. My grandmother lives in BC. I've spent quite a bit of time in the PNW and I've never heard that term.
I travel all over the world and I've covered quite a bit of North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Never heard "skookum" until on here and recently.
I guess it's the YouTube guy...
Hopeless Diamond
Explorer
Actually it's not uncommon here in the PNW and BC.
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His format is supposed to be like people sitting around a shop shooting the ********. Lighten up a little, he's acknowledged his lack of expertise quite frequently. Even going as far as following up in subsequent videos admitting to talking out his rear on a subject. I've gleaned some good information from him, I've also been near bored to death listening to experts cover certain topics.
billiebob
Well-known member
Skookum goes back at least a century. I never realized it was a PNW thing.
Shookumchuk Rapids are truly Skookum !!
Tidal rapids, reversing every 6 hours with flat water at ebb tide. Should be on everyones bucket list.
The fastest tidal rapids in the world yet you can swim across at ebb tide.
The building sound as the rapids grow is surreal.
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Red90
Adventurer
Humour is not your forte.
'Skookum' is part of my lexicon; I learned that word from my dad and grandpa. My grandparents moved to the West Kootenays in the late 1940s, both my parents were born there, I myself was born in Nelson in '71. It's a good ol' BC word for sure, but I didn't learn it was a strictly PNW word until fairly recently.
s.e.charles
Well-known member
billiebob
Well-known member
are you back in BC ?Skookum=
as in heavy duty.
built to handle a heavy load.
strong and resilient.
work horse.
beautiful in a robust way.
as shown in the picture below...
Hey thats one skookum truck ya got there...
chet6.7
Explorer
I first heard the word while in SE AK in 1980,a web search says it is Chinook Jargon,"Chinook Jargon, the trade language of the Northwest Coast, was a combination of Chinook with Nuu-chah-nulth and other Native American, English, and French terms. Chinook Jargon may have originated before European contact. It was used across a very broad territory reaching from California to Alaska" Source Britannica.
I also heard another word for the first time,I suspect my spelling is off,I remember it as "willowa",a powerful wind.
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Hopeless Diamond
Explorer
Williwaw - Wikipedia
"In meteorology, a williwaw is a sudden blast of wind descending from a mountainous coast to the sea. The word is of unknown origin, but was earliest used by British seamen in the 19th century. The usage appears for winds found in the Strait of Magellan, the Aleutian Islands and the coastal fjords of the Alaskan Panhandle, where the terms outflow wind and squamish wind are also used for the same phenomenon. On Greenland the word piteraq is used.
The williwaw results from the descent of cold, dense air from the snow and ice fields of coastal mountains in high latitudes, accelerated by the force of gravity. Thus the williwaw is considered a type of katabatic wind."
GHI
Adventurer
I’m not seeing a truck. Is this like a where’s Waldo thing?Skookum=
as in heavy duty.
built to handle a heavy load.
strong and resilient.
work horse.
beautiful in a robust way.
as shown in the picture below...
Hey thats one skookum truck ya got there...
TwinDuro
Well-known member
@nitro_rat I'll admit that I started using that word again after indeed watching the AVE Youtube channel (have learned a lot from that channel except when he speaks French, lol) and seeing it in Andrew's S-15 thread which put it back in my vocabulary. My dad's buddy uses it fairly regularly, he's from Massachusetts but has lived out here for 40 years (in his mid '70s), so that doesn't help. ?
Just seems like a good colloquial but like anything, once it gets overused I could see it getting annoying...
I have been fishing on the Skookumchuck river in the past, didn't catch anything (picked a bad time) but it sure was pretty!
Just seems like a good colloquial but like anything, once it gets overused I could see it getting annoying...
I have been fishing on the Skookumchuck river in the past, didn't catch anything (picked a bad time) but it sure was pretty!